On difficult history displayed: the pedagogical challenges of interminable learning

Abstract

The pedagogical purposes of public museums focus largely on the factual knowledge to be gained by attending an exhibit. What is often ignored are the affective and emotional responses prompted by the exhibit. The emotional response to difficult events may prompt youth to leave an exhibit with unintended, or interminable, knowing about the event itself. This article presents the results of a research study that examines a series of intergenerational interactions and conversations specific to war, which bears important educational consequences and implications for the learning of difficult historical events.

Keywords:

• museums
• museum education
• museum studies
• pedagogy
• difficult history
• memory studies
• museum exhibit

Acknowledgements

My most sincere thanks and appreciation to my community of scholars, notably Rochelle Gutierrez, Dana Rabin, and Avner Segall, who continue to provide timely and thoughtful comments about museums and their educational intent.

Notes

1. The Day Spring Charter School (a pseudonym) had a total student population of 392, of which 58 per cent had family members serving in the military in upper administrative positions. Of the five students with whom I worked, two had parents with military positions. The school had an on-going association with a volunteer group who flew in World War II. The visitation program between the school and the veterans group was in its 10th year and had evolved into an inter-generational oral history project. The veterans would visit the school four times throughout the school year. For further information on the research project and the results, see Trofanenko (2008).

2. The teacher assigned the students an oral history project involving veteran volunteers in order for the students to gain various interpretations and experiences of World War II. In groups of two or three, students first researched selected themes of war (personal sacrifice, military engagement, and post-war experiences), created questions to ask of the veterans, and attended the NMAH The Price of War exhibit and the World War II Memorial on the Mall.

3. I focus solely on Sam and his oral history project with Joseph for several reasons. First, Sam was the only student who completed his oral history project; second, he lived in the school catchment area which allowed him easy access to the exhibit outside of school time; and third, he remained at Day Spring Charter School throughout the school year (unlike two students in the research project who left prior to the end of the school year).