Authentic Connections: A Museum Lesson Plan That Centers Agency, Reflection, and Dialogue

This essay explores a collaborative, interdisciplinary partnership between an educator and evaluator that centers evaluation as education. The result is a proposed lesson plan that benefits educators, evaluators, and program attendees by focusing on cultivating authentic connections in a struggling society, shifting away from transactional dynamics that can arise in evaluation. This proposal is a starting point to re-imagine how authentic evaluation can intertwine with education by asking: how do we foster authenticity and vulnerability as museum educators-evaluators? We suggest that evaluation methods present educational opportunities—namely learning about oneself, differing perspectives, as well as points of community connection. This project thus examines and reflects on the roles that different systems of care play throughout evaluation as educational endeavors. To continue our work and invite a potential paradigm shift within our professions, we close by welcoming future partnerships with people interested in applying these practices.