Museum Educator PT seasonal

City of Alexandria•Alexandria, VA

7d•Onsite

About The Position

The City of Alexandria is seeking qualified candidates for a part-time temporary Museum Educator position. This role is the primary public-facing position, interacting with visitors of all ages from around the world. Responsibilities include daily museum operations, facilitating educational experiences using the city's history and collections, and potentially learning content for multiple museum locations. Staff are trained in facilitating conversations around challenging topics such as the domestic slave trade and lynchings. The Museum Educator ensures a high-quality guest experience, adapts content interpretation, opens and closes the museum/program, ensures safety of guests and collections, and manages shop sales. The role also involves teaching public programs and leading tours, working alongside Museum Operations staff and volunteers. This is a year-round position with variable hours based on availability and shift needs, including weekends, occasional evenings, weekdays, and holidays. A commitment to diversity, accessibility, inclusion, and public service is essential.

Requirements

Excellent customer service and communication skills.
A love for history.
Enjoy talking with people.
Demonstrated success teaching a wide variety of ages.
A working knowledge of best practices in interpretation, particularly of African American history.
Demonstrated success working with culturally diverse colleagues and guests.
Willingness to discuss topics like identity, race, white supremacy, and systemic racism.
Flexibility.
Excellent troubleshooting skills.
Demonstrate a willingness to do what it takes to get a job done.
Ability to work well independently and collaboratively with a small team.
Ability to climb stairs, stand and/or walk for long periods of time, and lift up to 30 pounds with or without an accommodation.
Two-Year College degree with a major in history, public history, material culture, museum education or a related field.
Supervision of staff (periodic experience).
Awareness of museum security.
Basic computer skills.
Project management experience.
Experience in staff management, particularly volunteer staff.
Interpersonal skills.
Organizational ability.
Ability to deal with the general public.
Ability to implement basic fiscal accountability procedures.
Any equivalent combination of experience and training which provides the required knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Nice To Haves

Four-year College degree.
Demonstrated knowledge of educational theory and interpretive practices.
Equivalent of one year’s work or volunteer experience teaching.
At least one year’s experience in retail or customer service.
Ability to work rotating shifts that regularly include weekends and holidays.
Ability to speak Spanish.

Responsibilities

Completes operational tasks related to opening and closing museums or running a program based on outlined procedures, including operating a computerized Point of Sale system, following money-handling procedures, and set-up/clean-up of program.
Teaches a variety of on-site and educational outreach programs, including tours and stationed activities, for a wide variety of ages.
Facilitates dialogue that encourages understanding and growth of museum visitors.
Handles the day-of logistics and client support of rentals.
Provides supervision of volunteers during their shift and assists in the on-going training of volunteers.
Collects visitor data and provides regular program reports that will be used to improve educational programming and the visitor experience.
Performs other duties as assigned.