Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Lärande och minnande på demensvisningar : en komparativ fallstudie av pedagogik inom demensvisningar på museer

Rick, Florence LU and Ekström, Natasha LU (2017) ABMM74 20171
Division of ALM and Digital Cultures
Abstract
This master’s thesis focuses on pedagogy and aspects of learning and remembering within guided museum tours for people with dementia. We explore in what way learning and remembering are focused on and triggered during those tours and with the help of which pedagogical means. Furthermore, we discuss what place these tours have within the museum as an institution. In order to examine our questions and to include different types of museums as well as different interpretations of museology we conducted our study at two cultural history museums in Sweden and one natural history museum in Germany. Through literature studies we traced back guided dementia tours at museums to their beginning to find possible pedagogical frameworks that may have... (More)
This master’s thesis focuses on pedagogy and aspects of learning and remembering within guided museum tours for people with dementia. We explore in what way learning and remembering are focused on and triggered during those tours and with the help of which pedagogical means. Furthermore, we discuss what place these tours have within the museum as an institution. In order to examine our questions and to include different types of museums as well as different interpretations of museology we conducted our study at two cultural history museums in Sweden and one natural history museum in Germany. Through literature studies we traced back guided dementia tours at museums to their beginning to find possible pedagogical frameworks that may have inspired the tours we joined. Our literature studies even provided a base to discuss the tours’ place at the museum institution by looking at the museum from an angle as an educational and a memory institution. Additionally, we interviewed the staff and observed a guided dementia tour at each of the museums. The results concerning pedagogy and learning were discussed with Falk and Dierkings The Contextual Model of Learning as well as the sociocultural theory while results relating to remembering were discussed with the help of the collective memory.

The study shows that the guided tours can be seen as a part of the development and widening of the pedagogical work at museums. Learning is a natural part of the dementia tours since museums have a long tradition as educational institutions, however, education in the traditional sense does not take place in these tours. They can rather be seen as part of the phenomenon edutainment. In the same way museums also have a tradition of being viewed as a memory institution. Remembering is something that occurs during the tours. However, it is necessary to view how oblivion takes place in comparison to remembering. If memory is seen as something outside the individual the museum with its objects can provide an external memory for the participants. If oblivion on the other hand is viewed as the lack produce memories, remembering is impossible even with the help of cultural memory. We were also able to conclude that even though the museum educators and guides don’t use a specific pedagogical framework the tours make use of many sociocultural elements. All three museums focus on interaction and dialogue with the participants. Our informants at Naturkundemuseum and Malmö Museum focus on remembering during their tours and use a range of external tools to trigger memories − mainly different senses and feelings, but even the objects themselves and the museum as a historical place. At Östergötlands museum the museum educator chooses not to actively focus on remembering due to memories’ diverse nature. Still, the objects the participants see and the museum site could trigger memories and the senses hearing and seeing are used during the tour. The collective memory and the communicative aspect of it could also be tools for remembering for all of the museums we studied. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Rick, Florence LU and Ekström, Natasha LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
Learning and remembering within guided museum tours for people with dementia
course
ABMM74 20171
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
pedagogy, guided museum tours, museology, Master’s thesis, ALM, remembering, learning, dementia, ABM, museologi, demens, museipedagogik
language
Swedish
id
8924304
date added to LUP
2017-09-25 15:33:07
date last changed
2017-09-25 15:33:07
@misc{8924304,
  abstract     = {{This master’s thesis focuses on pedagogy and aspects of learning and remembering within guided museum tours for people with dementia. We explore in what way learning and remembering are focused on and triggered during those tours and with the help of which pedagogical means. Furthermore, we discuss what place these tours have within the museum as an institution. In order to examine our questions and to include different types of museums as well as different interpretations of museology we conducted our study at two cultural history museums in Sweden and one natural history museum in Germany. Through literature studies we traced back guided dementia tours at museums to their beginning to find possible pedagogical frameworks that may have inspired the tours we joined. Our literature studies even provided a base to discuss the tours’ place at the museum institution by looking at the museum from an angle as an educational and a memory institution. Additionally, we interviewed the staff and observed a guided dementia tour at each of the museums. The results concerning pedagogy and learning were discussed with Falk and Dierkings The Contextual Model of Learning as well as the sociocultural theory while results relating to remembering were discussed with the help of the collective memory. 

The study shows that the guided tours can be seen as a part of the development and widening of the pedagogical work at museums. Learning is a natural part of the dementia tours since museums have a long tradition as educational institutions, however, education in the traditional sense does not take place in these tours. They can rather be seen as part of the phenomenon edutainment. In the same way museums also have a tradition of being viewed as a memory institution. Remembering is something that occurs during the tours. However, it is necessary to view how oblivion takes place in comparison to remembering. If memory is seen as something outside the individual the museum with its objects can provide an external memory for the participants. If oblivion on the other hand is viewed as the lack produce memories, remembering is impossible even with the help of cultural memory. We were also able to conclude that even though the museum educators and guides don’t use a specific pedagogical framework the tours make use of many sociocultural elements. All three museums focus on interaction and dialogue with the participants. Our informants at Naturkundemuseum and Malmö Museum focus on remembering during their tours and use a range of external tools to trigger memories − mainly different senses and feelings, but even the objects themselves and the museum as a historical place. At Östergötlands museum the museum educator chooses not to actively focus on remembering due to memories’ diverse nature. Still, the objects the participants see and the museum site could trigger memories and the senses hearing and seeing are used during the tour. The collective memory and the communicative aspect of it could also be tools for remembering for all of the museums we studied.}},
  author       = {{Rick, Florence and Ekström, Natasha}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Lärande och minnande på demensvisningar : en komparativ fallstudie av pedagogik inom demensvisningar på museer}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}