Perspectives on a Decade of Research

2. Family Learning in Museums: Perspectives on a Decade of Research

This Chapter discusses...

-How research focused on family learning in and from museums has progressed over the past decade and shares some perspectives from the field regarding its usefulness for practice

History

-Not enough significant number of researchers focusing on family learning until mid-late 1970s.

-By 1980s, there was an extensive body of literature that established the importance of family learning in and from museums

-Early Studies:

-demonstrates the significance of families as a focus of museum research

 families: major audience and unique learning group of mixed ages and backgrounds bound together by a complex shared system of past experiences, beliefs and values

-established the complex nature of family interactions, highlighting the ways in which family members interact and learn together and providing evidence that families bring an extensive array of personal and cooperative learning strategies to their experiences in museums

-Ten yrs later..

-obtaining benefits of 1) influential conferences

2) benchmark political reports

3) realization of a long anticipated "learning society"

4) participation from researchers that represent increasingly diverse research backgrounds

Three aspects of this new research:

1) shifting theoretical perspectives that signal shared language, belief, values, understandings and assumptions about what constitutes family learning.

2) realigning methodologies that are driven by underlying disciplinary assumptions about how research in this arena is best conducted what questions should be addressed and criteria for valid and reliable evidence

3) resituating research foci to ensure that the family is central to learning, reflecting a more holistic understanding of the family as an educational institution within the larger learning infrastructure

Shared Language, Beliefs, and Values of the Field

Causes of major shift in the past decade of family learning research:

-use of sociocultural theory in learning research

-recognition of its suitability for museum research these perspective frames learning in

and from museums as socially and

culturally constructed through people's actions within a specific community of practice

community of practice shares a set of values, vocabulary, understandings, and assumptions (where a person's actions and interactions are interpreted by members of his group)

Studies from this perspective focus not just on the immediate experiences of the family group in the museum but more broadly on the ways in which the family group is situated within the larger social and cultural context.

because we need to understand the shared meanings, processes, artifacts, symbols, and identities that families construct  this will fully reveal the nature of learning processes and products

This research 1) more generally described how families interact and talk about topics presented in exhibitions and programs. (family members talk about what they know from previous experiences, discussing what they see, hear, read, and do in relation to their family experiences and memories)

2) demonstrates that these discussions provide opportunities for family members to reinforce past experiences and family history, and to develop shared understandings

Recent studies of families' conversations emphasize the processes families engage in to construct meaning and build identity, and the role of the museum experience in the family's larger social and cultural context

Ex. Case: study conducted as part of the Family Learning Initiative, a systemic research effort at The Children's Museum (TCM) of Indianapolis

examined the long-term impact of two youth-based museum programs on young adults and their families.

findings demonstrated that these programs influenced participants' attitudes, interests, and awareness

study employed a social systems approach to understand the long-term impact of participation in these experiences within a larger sociocultural and development context

findings demonstrated that these programs influenced family dynamics, giving young adults the opportunity to 1. explore new roles within their family, 2. gain new perspectives and identities within the family system, and 3. learn new things about family members

there