Museum Playgrounds

Museum Playgrounds

An analogy asserted by Dr Thieu at the National Museum of Ethnology has been circling my mind ever since he delivered his informative lecture discussing notions of community and strategies for working with minority groups in Vietnam. Simply, Dr Thieu paralleled the museum space to a playground. 

This equivalence left me perplexed as I felt endless monkey bars, colourful slides and annoying gravel stone trivialized the traditional museum processes of research, documentation, commemoration and learning. 

But what is a playground? It is an exploratory space, often in a public place, that caters to different abilities, achieved by the design of obstacles and challenges of varying levels of difficulty. A visitor to a playground, regardless of age, is able to explore their innate sense of curiosity and wonder either independently or in a group. When leaving a playground, the visitor takes with them a new experience or personal achievement. Some visitors may leave exactly the same as when they arrived to the playground space. Regardless, the service of the playground is social, where people gather and interact.

Dr. Thieu’s reference to playgrounds reminded me of Ray Oldenberg’s concept of the ‘third place’ and how museums as a third place offer “experiences and relationships afforded there and nowhere else” (Oldenberg 21).  Following a week of exploration and reflection about how museums engage with numerous communities in a Vietnamese context, I feel that Oldenberg’s view of the museum as a ‘third place’ provides many opportunities and potential for Vietnamese school children.

From discussions with members of the Vietnamese museum community, I have started to learn about the education curriculum in Vietnam and how it tends to be too loose and too general. As noted in Revisiting the Primary Education Curriculum of Vietnam after 5 Years of Reform, there have been significant steps made in reforming the education curriculum in Vietnam; however, rote learning and a focus on knowledge tends to be the norm for Vietnamese students. In saying this, I feel museums have real potential as third places to foster critical thinking and questioning for Vietnamese students, who I understand to be quite reticent to actively engage and inquire beyond set knowledge outlined in a textbook. Therefore, students can learn how to learn (active) in a museum rather than just obtain knowledge (passive) in the classroom.

As discussed in the various forums and lectures of the UQ Field School in Vietnam, museums thus provide a platform for discussion and become living forums of debate. The activist museum can potentially be the channel that exposes learners, of all ages, to twenty-first century skills of critical and creative thinking, ethical understanding, intercultural understanding and personal and social capability (Australian Curriculum). Too, the museum can serve the education community as an equaliser for access to learning environments between all levels of schooling, be it public or private.

The museum is a place of discovery, self-discovery, just like a playground. By building partnerships with individual schools and passionate educators in both public and private contexts, educators and museum professionals can motivate a shift in pedagogy to guide students to gain valuable critical and creative thinking skills required in the twenty-first century. Immersive and experiential education programs in The Fine Arts Museum or the National History Museum are stepping stones to promote interactivity and participation between lifelong learners and the museum. Museums can motivate learners to take risks in their self-guided learning in an environment where a plurality of perspectives and voices in society is celebrated. 

In reflection, the challenges regarding the initiation and application of public programs, finding stakeholders, and applying multiple perspectives in the museum transcend geographic borders and political systems. All museum professionals share common challenges in their efforts to engage and represent communities in museums, particularly with school groups. This is a positive challenge and illustrates how current museological practice is being debated, shared and reflected upon in being of service to the community for which museums rely and are a part.

Reference:

Australian Curriculum v7.3. General Capabilities Overview. 2015. Web. http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/GeneralCapabilities/Overview/general-capabilities-in-the-australian-curriculum

Baker, J. Frederick and Rosalie Giacchino-Baker. Lower Secondary School Curriculum Development in Vietnam. 2002. Web. http://www.cpp.edu/~jis/2003/Baker_Baker.pdf

Ministry of Education and Training. Revisiting the Primary Education Curriculum of Vietnam after 5 Years of Reform. 2007. Print.

Oldenburg, Ray. The Great Good Place. Cambridge: Da Capo, 1997. Print.