Twenty-fifth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

The theoretical framework of my research on learning partnerships between schools and museums is inspired largely by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger-Trayner’s theories about social learning and communities of practice, and springs from a holistic understanding of learning and learners. My previous research has centered around qualitative studies of museum-school collaborations of many different types. The qualitative methods I have employed when studying museum-school partnerships range from observations in the field, semi-structured interviews to action research. In recent years, my focus has been on transforming the didactic and collaborative practice of teachers and museum interpreters’ through practice-based research in which they themselves are involved. A flexible collaborative model has evolved, which has at its center the concept of Interface Learning, a term I coined to indicate the learning that can take place when two communities of practice synergetically mesh and learn from each other. Teachers and museum interpreters report that they see their collaboration according to this model as practice-related continuing education and didactic and pedagogical training and development. Collaborating in this way is challenged by structural and financial constraints at both institutions. However, in Denmark recent reforms of primary and secondary education mandate greater openness between schools and the world outside them, not least heritage institutions, making for and encouraging professional collaborations between formal and informal learning environments.