i The significance of museum ,ducation is educational for everybody. The fathers are always quieting sons saying, “Listen to this,” as the Sergeant Major pats the el of the howitzer and tells his little story about Fallen rs. The women and the girls hang around the kitchens and the bower down by the river, where the ladies from the ‘the laundry. Sometimes people will help weed the plots of or churn butter, They'll add a few stitches to the quilt. oge kids work here for credit, I think. Or write papers. who visits is interested in sanitation. sle around to the privies, point out the chamber pots, it was a real problem in the previous fort duritThe significance of museum education ee Introduction here visitors have an incredible range ‘describe epiphanies in recountin ber vividly my own childhoa ; [ have stood te; ig as its scope and meaning grew and grew Tonce spent an hour on a misty, raw Nove bark-covered dwelling talking to a staff limoth Plantation while she tended a cooking pot over an open fire, a few minutes, only our conversation, the smell of the wood fire, the seats and blankets inside and the natural sounds of the brook and d water outside existed, When I left and looked back in the cool, shroudir formant emerge from her home to fetch more water in this At nly privileged, but overwhelmed at the ary places w d ms are extraordin: seri tors to experiences. It is not unusual for vi their own history with 1 visit more than 50 years a formed in front of a paintin, the longer I focused on it; morning in a native American to see my i woodland setting, I felt not o nity given me to enter, if only for a moment, a lost world. \| Millions of visitors have memories of such experiences; ones that Joh would call educative. Dewey, who strongly stresse peri \leducation, was also clear that not every experience is indeed edi mean that all experiences are genuinely of equally educati and education cannot be directly equated with each other experiences are mis-educative. Any experience is mis-ed ? me effect of arresting or distorting the g further experie experience may be such as to engender ca 1 of sensitivity and of responsiveness . ; J a person’s automatic skill in a particular di him in a groove or rue. . An expe and yer promote the formation of a are may be lively, vivid, and “inter onnectedness may artificially generate dispersi centrifugal habits. The consequence of forme eae inability to control future experiences, They neon way of enjoyment or of discontent and aed Dewey makes two A Vey ; points experiences to change us, ete that are relevan stimulate us may notThe significance of museum education powerful, epiphanies affect our visitors? How can the educative value of experience be enhanced? > MIO la cali dad The need to consider what meaning visitors make of their museum experience \ comes from two. different. sources: | educational role of museums;.the other is the increasing pressure on museums fo justify their existence. The latter pressure is mainly (but not exclusively) addressed through marker research; it manifests itself in efforts by museum staff to know who their audience is, to develop exhibitions that will be popular and that will increase attendance. Other providers of(éntertainmeni\ such as the Disney enterprises and other theme parks, have greatly advanced our under- standing of public responses tq leisure-time options) Much can be learned from these efforts about crowd control;-what makes a site appealing, how to attract various audience segments, and how best to market any leisure “product.” But exploring the educational value and potential of museums is more complex and deserves to be analyzed at some length. Dewey’s criteria of “lively, vivid, and ‘interesting’,” along with good accessibility and ample amenities, may be sufficient for entertainment. They are necessary, but not sufficient for education To make them educative represents the fundamental challenge of museum exhibitions and programs:\how to transform the obvious enthusiasm of visitors into connected, engaging, integrated activities that lead to growth. A brief history of museum education Education as a crucial museum function has been recognized as long as there have been public museums. The public museum as we know it - the display xe objects for the edification and entertainment of the public ~ is a product of the eighteenth century, with a major expansion of museums into significant public institutions occurring in the nineteenth century. Museums developed approximately parallel with the advent of the nation-state in response to recog- nition that the welfare of citizens ii 2 : Public museums grew as knowledge spread beyond a very limited class. Hudson (1975) attributes to René Huyge, a French scholar, the observation that museums and encyclopedias appeared at about the same time. Both were an expression of the eighteenth-century spirit of enlightenment which produced an enthusiasm for equality of opportunity of learning .. . The theory behind these movements was a simple one, that collections which Thesis been reserved for the pleasure and instruction of a few peop! i ‘ould be made accessible to everybody. or vdeo (Hudson 1975: 6) the early part of the nineteenth century, newly opened museums ~ althoush limited access for the public — primarily demonstrated the wealth and Power of governments, They displayed imperial conquests, exhibited the exotic and treasures brought back to Europe by colonial administrations one is the increasing importance of the /The significance of museum education and private travelers or unearthed by increasingly popular excavatio enetally awed those fortunate enough to be allowed t0 enter and obser splendor of a nation’s wealth. The Museum of Napoléon at the Louvre displayed the booty of j conquest; every new campaign necessitated opening a new gallery to material shipped to Paris after the battles. The Congress of Viem the return of many treasures to their original owners, much to the the curator of the Louvre (Wittlin 1949: 233-4). a Museums that contain material from places other than the home ¢o restricted to the imperialist nations. Only in imperial nations in North America can one find large international collections of p; natural history objects. Museums in most other countries hor national collections. Museums of Greece have few northern Euro Asian) objects; Chinese museums do not have Occidental departments te their Oriental counterparts in England or the United States. = In the latter half of the nineteenth century, as industrialization populations moved to the cities, and science and industry reshapeé ments also increasingly took responsibility for social Museums were viewed as one type of institution among ses provide education for the masses. Henry Cale,-the influ new South Kensington Museum “was engaged on a public education” (Anderson 1995: 15). Museums i agencis-available to help people better themselves and to a of modern wan public campaigns for health education, in_indy i cena wonders for public entertainment today, as well as many of the controv duced by pioneering staff members ; aThe significance of museum education |) 5 yt SS lic discussion of what schools were for, how they should be run, and ()! whether they were doing their intended job. By the late nineteenth century, the” increasingly universal school system included an assessment system, as well as evaluations of schools and school systems. Museums, although equally public \institutions in most countries, did not establish similar approaches to assessing impact on their clients. T-was assumed that people would learn, be enlightened, and be entertained by their visits to museums without any reference to the study of visitors’ experiences. The attitude that the response of the museum’s audience is irrelevant still exists in many museums. By the end of the century, schools had so eclipsed museums’ public educational function that it was necessary to argue that museums could support the educa- ional. In a lecture delivered in 1853, Professor Edward Forbes had argued that curators “may be prodigies of learning and_yet-unfit for their posts,” if they anything about pedagogy, if they are not equipped fo ople who know nothing (quoted in Greenwood 1888: 185). Thirty- Wve years later James Paton, Superintendent of the Glasgow Art Gallery and ‘Museums, is quoted as saying: ‘We are now on the threshold of other important changes in connection with scientific and secondary education; and in the efficiency of all these educational movements the museum of the city should be an important factor. It ought to be the centre around which educational institutions cluster, the storehouse whence they could draw the material examples and illustrations required on the lecture table and in the class-room. (Glasgow Art Gallery and Museums n.d.: 5) As Hooper-Greenhill (1991) points out: During the nineteenth century, education had been the prime function of the museum. The ideal museum was understood to be “the advanced. ‘school of self-instruction”, and the place where teachers should “naturally go for assistance”. Although many museums and galleries were unable to achieve this ideal, this was a firmly held view. By the 1920s this conviction, held so strongly by nineteenth-century thinkers in _ so many areas of intellectual and political life, was under attack. A new ation of curators was less interested in the public use of museums, ‘more interested in the accumulation of collections. (Hooper-Greenhill 1991: 25) tly in the United States, the educational function of museums was. early (Roberts 1997) but, despite some notable exceptions of sin the late nineteenth century, the public school movement Swork in museums diverged. Only recently has interest in the “informal” education can make to the overall educational Gxtended beyond @small group within either museums orof mmueseun & —— Proponents of this argument cite the - ad a more elitist, exclusive teadltOT ess codes, eoncera about oa for the eae recess and restrictiVe a Although there has been a jong FH lition of wmasoes,” et.) of early MUSEUMS HT serious effort to fy : te Social titicism of museums for nate vein 1949, Hudson 1975), it is hardly appro. obligations (see Low 1942, ish 1900 to the standards of democracy we onus to hold museums of 1850 or 170, iced a democracysevenitieman Prnbrace today. The United States is consid a coat of fe alee anginal formulation disse the. most recent ratified within living 4 ere comeronl sneer, he omen, As Orn 199 in the United States at least, museums have always been suggest a American democratic culture and developed in direct products of the 4 e sinchroaization with the evolution of the general cultural climate... the great majority had serious and egalitarian aspirations. (Orosz 1990: 3) The significance of education in museums Although the educational function of museums is venerable, the last three decades have witnessed a shift in both the definition of education and its relative importance within museums and within the museum profession, The modern world has changed the social and cultural structure in which this function is taking place. Indeed, the very nature of education, both what we mean by the term and what we expect of educational institutions, has changed. Definitions of education ae ; ce fll in le eee ABPTOach to education, which will be discussed Learning is now more flyin ber chapters: seen as an active participation.of the learner with the environment Fhe oes ai eee ca 1 iment, ic i * PEAS (s Gisinct from codiRed nomen een, OF Teaming as elevated information contained 4 important place in the effort to n contained in book: a more educate, Museu shrfore alt inthe objet seprecema oes on the Cull ofthe cul therefore, become central to any educational eff the written word to k objects, as Although the writin : of John Dewe '88 and teaching of Comenius (pj, 2 Significance of lemmas ¢&¥¢lopmental Psychol 8, 1967), the philosophy f Piaget all ize the Principle fully. Crities eet ence, our geryot Piaget all recognize th ragcind that valuing exper #8Ue thar educssjer cet YEE £0. accept his ere is no jj is ‘Sa matter of “learning” movement mPoftant role for 4. not Onl of “learning F museums in Te esSAty, but also detrimental. © “back to basics” education_ The significance of museum education Formal and informal education writers have attributed all progressive educational ideas to the education that takes place in museums, contrasting the “informal” education sive tin place in museums ~ self-directed learning, use of materials, respent fan q —with “formal” education in schools, depicted as dull, content dwwcr Sand highly didactic. It is important to recognize that interest in muccay “education is and has been part of a continuing effort to make all educational 3 institutions relevant for the entire population. Tin this book the terms “formal” and “informal” are reserved for a description g ; he presence or absence of a formal curriculum, Schools provide a primarily formal education; they teach -a specific, hierarchical curriculum, and S they usually have rules about attendance, time spent in classes, classmates, and fequirements for successful completion, Museums, even when overtly {engaged in education, usually offer informal education; they do not have a set g curriculum that progresses from lower to higher levels, usually do not require 8 ‘of a visit. ° attendance, and do not certify mastery of specific knowledge at the conclusion ) The terms do not distinguish between possible characteristics of the education that takes place in the two institutions. Both formal and informal settings fie. both schools and museums) can be places where learning is facilitated i the use of objects, the opportunities to learn are based on the learners’ 5 \d/or construction of meaning, and ility for their own activities. “Formal” and “informal” ae aaa settings; the Recah pedagogic Classrooms in gessive schools, committed to a developmental-active learning philosophy, ay Took very much like a discovery gallery in a science museum, Conversely, Museum programs that place the participants in isolated classrooms urer in front of the group, and these may share many attributes with Sas museums within the profession. Three major reports on the status the United States published in the past 25 years illustrate this ‘museum educators view their own role. The first, The Belmont ican Association of Museums 1969), arose from the museum 5 ineluded-in and Contribute to the sc Hal programs that ‘ “administration..The Belmont Report warns o} re of meas to. eee the public and the need for out the museum’s mission. In response to the mandate to ng three questions museums’) present condition?”»ducation — ss The significance of museum education _ nuseums?” | and cultural institutions?” ‘ation of Museums 1969: xi) erica’s ™ ot needs of Americ etn ationa’ Whar are the ur ‘ lation to oth é er educa 3 “What is their re T (American Asso museum as ion of knowledge, and the {fords pleasure and delight, ssociation of Museums 1969: 1) the mission of the he advancement and diffus' at awareness which a! (American A\ i of museums as research discuss the functions s The report then goes on to The cept cscionalivininlamlaa pelea ial avons es a national effort to provide ‘education for disadvantaged children. jum areas?) (American Association of Museums 1969: 13). In 1982 the American Association of Museums convened the Commission on Museums for a New Century to accomplish this formidable task: to study and clarify the role of museums in American society, their obligations eyes and interpre our cultural and natural heritage, and their responsibilities to an ever-broadening audience. the authors define two-fold: enhancement of th: (American Association of Museums 1984: 11) ‘The Commission sought the public’s view of museums and their appropriate positioning within communities through a series of forums with museum professionals listening to community leaders. The Commission’s Museums for @ Naw Century (American Association of Museums 1984) included a chapter ihlighting the hecessity for museums to interpret their collections for the oe eee in Museums,” the Commission acknowl steed ae teh ( eer of ee to museums, and went on to eum: ‘ot realized their full potential as educational of Mas ie sa ‘ation of Museums 1984: 28). The general tone ‘\ ‘entury 1984: 28). ; \ only important, but is as eae as ead) function of museumes a practice. ther aspects of museum professional rican Associ returned to the theme of! ‘sociation Of Musi 1992) In this report, educati cee te OF Museum learning, and summary states on has risen” even ther yutial to museum practice. in significance. The report restated the profession's ‘The commani mmunity of museums j responsibility wih oaSeUMs in the Uni cs For al ay atonal ing ae shakes the resourcefully apy ecites few to nurture an eaect earning and sensitively lt Of knowing creer iBhtened, humane engaged in eS about ii : : Ss’ gq” S8A8ed in the ut its past, is Ec gun Present, and is determined 0 AoThe significance of museum education ture in which ma ene 2 shape a fu many experiences and many points of view are given voice. ’ (American Association of Museums 1992: 25) in Britain, the introduction of a national curriculum in 4988-gave rise to publi- cations (Moffat 1996, School Curriculum and Assessment’ Authority 1995, j Yorath 1995) that discussed the use of museums to support state-mandated education goals, Museum staff have worked closely with local educational authorities to assure that exhibitions and programs mesh with the school cur- ficolum. Unfortunately, muscums that happen to have collections on topics that fall outside the main themes of the required topics must struggle to justify the i educational value of their possessions. A recent report acknowledges both the | | © past potential and the present opportunity to create “the museums that will be needed if they are truly to serve society and its learning needs in the new century” (Anderson 1997: iv), Museums in the United Kingdom have always heen seen as educational institutions. Yet this is the first comprehensive report to examine their educational role in full. Its publication reflects a renewed awareness of the contribution that museums make to lifelong public learning, and the even greater contribution that they could make in future iF their work was coordinated at local, regional and national levels. (Anderson 1997: iv) Interpretations of culture Additional socio-political forces have also brought interpretation to the fore- ground in museums. As other major institutions in our society - state religion, schools, political parties, and social organizations — have declined in importance, ‘the role of museums as interpreters of culture has increased. ~~ History museums haye taken on the burden of|renterpreting thei displays and collections to reflect modern re-examination oF national and local history. jal Williamsburg added slave quarters (and even a provocative slave auction!) to its public exhibitions and programs; Liverpool Museum has ded an exhibition on the slave trade in its coverage of the growth of that interpretation of the Little Bighorn Battlefield has dramatically changed ‘began to include the Native American side of the story. Some of these ‘of wider interpretation or reinterpretation also result in controversial such as the presentation of the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped ic bomb on Hiroshima, at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. ale of museums in interpreting culture has become public enough to attract sn of social theorists (see Macdonald and Fyfe 1996), who discuss museums interpret culture and how studying museums as social $ may inform us about our culture. volume] is concerned with museums as sites in which socially ally embedded theories are performed. The interest here is in s museums tell, the technologies they employ to tell their tales,The 10 ignificance of ” ave to those of other sites, including those and, the volume is concerned to es. Second, : may be theorized within social and nd what devices can we Jation these stories ‘al studi hich museums hat stories can We (es uuseums? and the re of social and cultur highlight ways in w cultural studies. What ste employ, to make sense of ™ (Macdonald 1996: 3) “These issues are all concerned with the overt aS well as the hidden, implicit nese issues are all c educational roles of museums. Museums in a changing world Such recognition of the primacy of interpretation and education in museum practice is particularly evident in museums in newer, emcee Gontcte. (Boe 1595), although it also surfaces in developed countries as all embrace a wider range of ethnicities among their residents. If there is anything that museums should be proud of, it is the Museum’s contribution to the issue of “national identity” at least this is true for many developing countries and it is certainly true of Papua New Guinea, (Foe 1995: 15) How should a new (or changing) nation-state define its museums, and how can these help to define the culture of the nation? Such problems are frequently discussed at international museum education conferences where speakers illustrate the immense diversity of educational ae the etme museums for national cultures in dozens of ies. For example, at the 1993 annual conference of the Committee for he and oi Action (CECA) of ICOM in India, S. K. Bagchi (1993) let the, a le af rect intervention of a district science centre in rural India support socio-cultural development in a poor district. As a result. \ In 1984, the District Sci j : a A t Scier ideal | economic development ahants £9 fully involved with socio- | dig tube wells and ponds ie tut 45 Kheria villages were motivated to 9 3 | isanteo sears women Were taught to make marketable prods Kom i le Scienc : able p © | arranged and stipends ee poor, “eshibtons on mala and dishes one® Centre developed visual Other reports at the (Bagchi 1993) nities in Bangladesh ae stressed the o} : (Gino 1993, Shilo. nee 3), cross-cultural Ercabe ee efforts to coins (Mukhopadhyay 1993) 44.223 museum effores eras for children in Istad ae educational ae pera fonmental oes ae social integration in Kenya (Maikweki 19 ion var 1993) in India, in England to visit and go? eta Program ease Be National eee te i ‘age Bengali women living ‘ictori pee AT ere Miasern Ak ae ABUSERS.— The significance of museum education also Akbar De pit is striking is the overt political-social purpose of these ams, with or without cooperation from the national authorities, to change the societies in which they take place through museum-related education sl \ aetivities. es is active prese} 1 > nyou Goh y WV ps ‘Museums a. preservers of culture —~ —- Len lov ch Just as museums have taken on major educational roles in many cowtries © —<—-~ through programs and exhibitions intended to benefit various segments of the population, they have also become active preservers of (often vanishing) cultures, not just passive collectors of cultural artifacts, This function was discussed both at the CECA meeting in India and the subsequent 1994 meeting in Cuenca, Ecuador (Astudillo 1996). In industrial societies with their influx of diverse cultural groups this function involves expanding the museum’s role (amid controversy!) and making decisions about what to include in its collections. In post-colonial countries with disappearing ways of life this aspect means going out to local and remote communities and actively working to preserve cultural artifacts and cultural production. In all countries, active collecting is required and involves aggressive search for cultural components that are disappearing for a variety of reasons. Memories of Holocaust survivors, neighborhoods uprooted by urban renewal, or quickly forgotten, obsolete technologies require immediate attention so that they can be included in museum exhibitions. The dramatic political changes in the world since 1990 have brought to the the significant role of museums in helping to redefine new nations and ret the history of these same states under former regimes. Groys (1995), this role for museums in the modern world where “theré is no fixed, y-more,” suggests that Therefore, in the modern age, an artificial memory, a cultural archive, a museum would have to be created in which historical memories are "recorded in the form of books, pictures, and other historical documents. Modern subjectivity has no other way to define itself in the world than by collecting, by creating an archive of objects which would be saved from the destruction through time by the technical means of (Groys 1995: 8) these expanded social functions of museums involve the traditional ‘ums «collection, preservation, documentation, peeps reves wwledge and require the ct shat is to be the museum and what me one ‘activities illuminate the cance of the_inte i i ¢ (ie. thg work cf museum IIssum education mia The significance of muse Conclusion vanging from changing definitions of learning a ae existence £0 expanding socio-political roles Snscious societies, museum education What is learned in museums and how learning takes llectual curiosity. Learning in the museum and become a matter of survival for museums, For a variety of reasons, yn museums to just pressures ( cre in increasingly self-< of museums is increasing in significance place is more than a matter of intel understanding visitors’ learning has education in museums, and education’s increased ms (and museum associations), requires that we study and understand learning in museums. The a of this book is to examine possible theories of education, as well as theories o} research about | visitors, how these theories determine our definitions of learning, and how they are applied to exhibitions and programs. In Chapter 2 I develop a framework for understanding educational theories, classifying them according to their positions on two main elements, theories of Knowledge and learning, and developing an educational policy. The analysis of theories is a necessary component of educational practice but it is not sufficient. A complete educational program consists of more than a theory; it requires application of that theory through a specific pedagogy. It also includes an educational policy: what is the aim of the education? to whom is it directed? how does it relate to other social and political institutions? Later chapters will include such considerations as learning in the museum is discussed from a broader perspective. This rise in the importance of e role in shaping the mission of museul Visitor studies has a 100-year history, culminating in the current thriving enterprise involving hundreds of professionals and generating an increasing ae fe eel literature. In Chapter 3, I briefly summarize the history insane apart Point out contrasting traditions that emerged. These traditions Aa ae 'B theories in social science. In Chapter 4, I discuss the al-design (“quantitative”) and naturalistic (“qualitative”) styles of social science research, the emei : rgence of program evaluati field, and the relevance of both of these to visitor eas ae I k i s5 they arise from applies 10 museum educnion at discuss this relationship, especially as it The field of visitor studi dived from ch les has developed a by i Tee tet a ta soca te ee Ce and learning in maseums, In Chanteuse) knowledge about visitor behavior Diets 6. fe. To ae first the methods that may learn i insights they provide into what Fall, 1 belive thar be Sa muscu, ley provide into their easing On visitors, the mea: a i understandings, is ie mings they attribute t most useful way to developThe significance of museum education and programs that will allow visitors to have satisfying museum s and allow museums to maximize the inherent potential of objects to human growth and learning. My views on the constructivist d in Chapter 8.ee Be ae es “for, these two paradigms is the subject of ea considerable controversy. Ie will be discused the next chapter. Introduction 11 told that all these resources are now on- shit line, available directly or through commercial” services. 4 The countenance of visitor studies 1 The title of this chapter honors a seminal paper 2 Education theory by Professor Robert Stake (1967) that helped define — and broaden - the new field of 1. Strictly speaking, “positivism” refers to the program evaluation. philosophy of Auguste Comte, as Miles (1993: 2 USOE did not become a separate deparmen 29) pointed out. But it has been widely used of the federal government until the Carter to describe the position that science provides a administration, 1977-81. true picture of nature. 3 In the United States, a post-war curriculum 2 Some exhibitions, although didactic, are reform movement focused on. the sil arranged more like “study collections” — the curriculum, the possibility of teaching subjects components are categorized and used to to students at varying levels as they matured ilastate oot sublest stuctige, Wat Geto i (Gunes 1960), Custiculum ‘seforn, part no specified path through the collection. inspired by efforts to keep up with apparent 3 The operationalism of simple $-R. theory Soviet success in science (Goldstein 1992) also, pean gui erreel he irsded a norennct w seta, ponesie behavioral events. educational practices first suggested by Dewey at the turn of the century. United States educators turned to British practices of the “integrated day” (Brown and Precious 1968, Weber 1971) as models for classroom organiza" 3 Early visitor studies 1 T am grateful to Dr Paulette McManus for thon andl u " on fe instruction. In Britain, the Plowéet 2 Cara amtiver cae Report (Department of Education and Scie Shaper 7h Newwath (97 ee ePeeaNY 1967) and elueational refors ttore associ Chapter 7 in Neurath (1973), Neurath’s s i i a ; ignif- with ‘th cational OFF Sresamegestdtomion hasbeen diced > Ty! oa deing of educational rp 3 a Sr Oya ey work, for exampk dis bas a oa 2 = ued ee T1981) mple, dis- lucation, especially in the earlier years. 4° The terms “qualitative” and “quantitative” frequently used t0 describe’ two i, i aparece to rscach, although the eraeay > Adder and network theories distinction berween the two d ul early ae Perens Sh 1 Of course, another whole field of agricul ke the research process, A fesearch places particular emphasis he Re seat as Garces et Partcslat empbats Oy 180