Eleventh International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

Zimbabwe was once a colony of Great Britain from 1890-1980 and the majority of institutions in Zimbabwe including museums have been developed and managed by the white settler Rhodesians. Zimbabwe, having attained independence in 1980, inherited museums as they were. This study examines the educational worth of museums for primary school students. The research investigates how primary school students were learning from structured class visits and educational programmes given during school-museum visits provided by five national museums in Zimbabwe. The study makes use of qualitative and quantitative research approaches. The study gathers that museums are contributing to the learning of social and environmental studies curriculum. However there are fewer opportunities to learn other subjects at primary schools in Zimbabwe. The major barriers to student’s learning are categorised as structural, physical, and intellectual. Museums in Zimbabwe base their educational programming on behaviourist educational framework and this is restrictive to effective learning in informal settings. Behaviourism promotes the pedagogy of the oppressed (Freire, 1972) because it is premised on the idea of the museum as instructor and students as “blank slates.” It is not a surprise that the educational philosophy and some of the instructional media used to impart knowledge to students in museums are remnants of a colonial educational service. There is need to “decolonise” museum education service in Zimbabwe and adopt sociocultural frameworks in designing museum educational programmes that facilitate effective learning among primary school students.