Twelfth International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

Communities and especially the younger generation in Jordan are poorly engaged with their multicultural heritage, both in formal education and at touristic heritage sites and museums which do much for the Jordanian economy but little for its social development. In this paper, we report on our on-going research project designed to understand and tackle this challenge. Despite over 40 years of academic and professional research and debate over community engagement in heritage and museums globally, we still need to understand much more about the Jordanian museum situation, including the professional and social barriers to fully exploiting their educational potential. We are finding out that high quality international training of our collaborating museum staff and educators can make a difference. But we are also experimenting with new ways of teaching and learning in museums, to figure out what approaches work best in the Jordanian context. Some key principles underpin our mission: working with the past for the benefit of present-day and future generations of Jordanians; celebrating the multicultural heritage of Jordan’s diverse communities; highlighting the educational value of museums and their collections; identifying, sharing and adapting best professional practice for the Jordanian museum and education sectors; creating and working in new partnerships that connect museums, schools and universities, for mutual benefit; and persuading policy makers that, by adopting these transformative principles, museums and their users can make a positive and lasting difference to Jordan’s economy, culture, and society.