Cooperation, collaboration, challenge: how to work with the changing nature of educational audiences in museums

Since the publication of George Hein’s seminal work, Learning in the Museums (1998), museums have endeavoured to providing constructivist learning experiences for educational audiences. However, the nature of contemporary educational practice has necessitated that museums develop deeper and more sustained relationships with their audiences and, in doing so, presents many challenges for museums. A key component of this change is the need for ongoing and sustained consultation in an equal, respectful and two-way relationship, where both the audience and the museum are transformed in some way. This presents a major challenge for both museums and museum professionals, many of whom have long been used to a one-to-many relationship with their audiences, rather than the many-to-many model currently being championed by a range of museum thinkers.

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