School museums as dynamic areas for widening the heuristic potential and the socio-cultural impact of the history of education. A case study from Italy

ABSTRACT

The contribution aims at introducing some points to reflect on the new role which university museums of schools and education can play today in the wake of current international processes of revitalisation of university heritage and museums, particularly in the light of the new objectives of the University Third Mission. Starting from the experience of the “Paolo and Ornella Ricca” School Museum in Macerata University, the authors illustrate how university museums can achieve several goals: on the one hand, to foster the opening up of the universities and academic research towards civil society, and the dissemination of the results of the most innovative historical-educational research; on the other hand, to promote the meaning and the value of the educational heritage as a collective cultural asset able to give participation and knowledge; finally, to make the historical-educational disciplines more valuable as a specialised knowledge which, through such heritage, can express a new specificity and a more active role within academic community.

KEYWORDS:

• University museums
• educational heritage
• cultural transfer
• public engagement
• history of education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Zygmunt Bauman, Liquid Modernity (Cambridge: Polity, 2000).

² Regarding the adaptation of the European educational systems to meet the goals in the strategic framework “Education and Training 2020” (work programme ET2020), see the communications of the European Commission COM/2016/0941: Improving and Modernizing Education, Bruxelles, 7.12.2016, and Com(2017)248: School Development and Excellent Teaching for a Great Start in Life, Bruxelles, 30.5.2017, in addition to the report ET 2020 Working Group on Schools, European Ideas for Better Learning. The Governance of School Education Systems (Bruxelles: EC-Directorate-General Education, Youth, Sport and Culture Schools and Multilingualism, 2018). With regard to European university policies, see European Commission High-Level Group on the Modernisation of Higher Education, Report to the European Commission on New Modes of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, October 2014).

³ Edgar Morin, La tête bien faite (Paris: Seuil, 1999). The edition referred to is: La testa ben fatta (Milano: Raffaello Cortina, 2000), 15–29.

⁴ Regarding the renewed educational role of museums in the new scenarios opened up by innovations, such as the new technologies or multicultural society etc., it is worth mentioning the results of some particularly significant European projects: the report Mu.SA Project, Museum of the Future, Roma, Symbola Foundation, 2017, http://www.project-musa.eu; the project MeLa-European Museums in an Age of Migration, http://www.mela-project.polimi.it/; and the LEM Museum Report 7: New Trends in Museums of the 21st Century. The Learning Museum Network Project, ed. Ann Nicholls, Manuela Pereira and Margherita Sani, 2013, http://online.ibc.regione.emilia-romagna.it/I/libri/pdf/LEM7th-report-new-trends-in-Museums-of-the-21st-century.pdf (accessed 10 December 2018).

⁵ Marta Lourenço, “Where Past, Present and Future Knowledge Meet: An Overview of University Museums and Collections in Europe”, Museologia Scientifica. Memorie 2 (2008): 321–9.

⁶ Nuria Sanz and Sjur Bergan, eds., The Heritage of European Universities (Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 2002). Nowadays, the volume is available in the II edition of 2007.

⁷ See the institutional website of UMAC-University Museums And Collections, http://umac.icom.museum (accessed 10 December 2018). Since 2001, the commission has been running a Worldwide Database of University Museums and Collections, which is constantly updated and allows us to appreciate the extreme richness and variety of “Institutional Types” into which universities have organised their museums, collections and heritage. See the database’s site, http://university-museums-and-collections.net/ (accessed 10 December 2018).

⁸ Council of Europe, Recommendation Rec (2005) 13 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on the Governance and Management of University Heritage. Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 7 December 2005 at the 950th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies. It should be noted that the question of a proper management of university heritage and collections in Italy had already been raised by the Museum Commission of the CRUI (Conference of Italian University Rectors) in 1999. See Giacomo Giacobini, “J’accuse…! (con il dovuto rispetto). I musei universitari, la CRUI e le occasioni perdute”, Museologia Scientifica 10 (2016): 15–20.

⁹ Henry Etzkowitz and Andrew Webster, “Entrepreneurial Science: The Second Academic Revolution”, in Capitalizing Knowledge: New Intersections of Industry and Academia, ed. Henry Etzkowitz, Andrew Webster and Peter Healey (Albany: SUNY Press, 1998), 21–46.

¹⁰ Jordi Molas-Gallart et al., Measuring Third Stream Activities: Final Report to the Russell Group of Universities (Brighton: Science and Technology Policy Research Unit - University of Sussex, 2002), here: IV.

¹¹ This is not the place for a full-dress discussion of the literature, about which readers may refer to more specific contributions such as, for example, the review by Rómulo Pinheiro, Patricio V. Langa and Attila Pausits, “One and Two Equals Three? The Third Mission of Higher Education Institutions”, European Journal of Higher Education 5, no. 3 (2015): 233–49.

¹² See for example Jordi Molas-Gallart and Elena Castro-Martínez, “Ambiguity and Conflict in the Development of ‘Third Mission’ Indicators”, Research Evaluation 16, no. 4 (2007): 321–30; Philippe Laredo, “Revisiting the Third Mission of Universities: Toward a Renewed Categorization of University Activities?”, Higher Education Policy 20 (2007): 441–56. This is the context in which the European project E3M-European Indicators and Ranking Methodology for University Third Mission was financed, http://www.e3mproject.eu/ (accessed 8 October 2018). On the Italian scenario: Stefano Boffo and Roberto Moscati, “La Terza Missione dell’università. Origini, problemi e indicatori”, Scuola Democratica 2 (2015): 251–67.

¹³ This recent approach presents a special focus on co-creation of sustainable development based on a process of circular exchange of knowledge (instead of a linear process of knowledge transfer) between university and government, industry and civil society. See: Gregory Trencher et al., “Beyond the Third Mission: Exploring the Emerging University Function of Co-Creation for Sustainability”, Science and Public Policy 41, no. 2 (2014): 151–79.

¹⁴ European Commission, “Communication from the Commission: The Role of the Universities in the Europe of Knowledge”, COM (2003) 58 final (Brussels: European Commission, 5 February 2003); European Commission, “Mobilising the Brainpower of Europe: Enabling Universities to Make their Full Contribution to the Lisbon Strategy”, COM (2005) 152 final (Brussels: European Commission, 20 April 2005); Council of Europe, Declaration on the Responsibility of Higher Education for Democratic Culture, 23 June 2006; and OECD, Higher Education and Regions: Globally Competitive, Locally Engaged (Paris: OECD Publications, 2007).

¹⁵ This definition appeared since the first public evaluation procedures (VQR 2004–2010; VQR 2011–2014) implemented by the national Agency (ANVUR). The same definition in: ANVUR, Manuale per la valutazione della terza missione delle università italiane, 2015 (here: 4).

¹⁶ Such a distinction is still operating in the recent documents: ANVUR, Linee guida per la compilazione della Scheda Unica Annuale Terza Missione e Impatto Sociale (SUA-TM/IS) per le Università (Roma: Anvur, 7 November 2018), here: 4; and ANVUR, Rapporto Biennale sullo Stato del Sistema Universitario e della Ricerca. Sezione 9: attività di Terza Missione (Roma: Anvur, 2018), here: 494–503.

¹⁷ ANVUR, Manuale per la valutazione della terza missione delle università italiane, cit. (here: 42). However, it should be noted that the 3M indicators, especially those related to public engagement, are still poorly standardised (Valentina Martino, “Terza Missione e cultura delle università. Note per una sociologia del patrimonio accademico”, Rivista Trimestrale di Scienza dell’Amministrazione 1 (2018), http://www.rtsa.eu/RTSA_1_2018_Martino.pdf (accessed 10 December 2018).

¹⁸ Vincenzo Vomero, “La terza missione dell’Università, prima missione per i Musei”, Museologia Scientifica. Nuova Serie 10 (2016): 9–14 (here: 9).

¹⁹ In this regard, the forthcoming 19th Annual UMAC Conference, which will be held within the 25th ICOM General Conference in Kyoto (September 2019), will be precisely dedicated to: “University Museums and Collections as Cultural Hubs: The Future of Tradition”.

²⁰ Valentina Martino, “Musei e collezioni del patrimonio universitario. Indagine su un sistema culturale diffuso”, Museologia Scientifica. Nuova Serie 10 (2016): 42–55.

²¹ Of the museums registered 57% are represented by science museums. This percentage is made up of Natural History and Natural Science museums (33.3%), Science and Technology museums (14.1%) and, finally, Medicine museums (10.1%). These data were consulted on 18 August 2018. It must be noted that participating in the database is voluntary, so the data should be understood as indicative and not exhaustive.

²² Pasquale Tucci, “L’evoluzione storica del museo scientifico, dalle gallerie alla rete”, Bollettino del Cilea 102 (2006): 7–10.

²³ Luigi Amodio, Annalisa Buffardi, and Lello Savonardo, eds., La cultura interattiva: comunicazione scientifica, musei, science centre (Pomigliano d’Arco, NA: Oxiana, 2005); Vincenzo Vomero, “Le mutazioni della museologia scientifica”, Museologia Scientifica. Nuova Serie 1 (2007): 13–15; and Matteo Merzagora and Paola Rodari, La scienza in mostra. Musei, science centre e comunicazione (Milano: FrancoAngeli, 2007).

²⁴ Regarding the new modalities of public communication of science and science education in the so-called “post-academic era of science” see Pietro Greco, “Il modello Venezia. La comunicazione nell’era post-accademica della scienza”, in La comunicazione della scienza. Atti del I e II Convegno Nazionale, ed. Nico Pitrelli and Gianluca Sturloni (Roma: Zadigroma Editore, 2004), 11–35.

²⁵ Among the many cases, it is possible to mention the university museum system in Padua as an example. Led by a University Museum Centre established in 2002, the Padua case is of particular interest because of the number and antiquity of its museums. Notwithstanding the establishment in 1993 of a prestigious Museum of Education, the greater and oldest part of the museums is represented by Science museums (such as Anatomy, Physics, Geology and Palaeontology etc.), many of which have been (or are being) renovated in spaces and arrangements just in these years.

²⁶ See the considerations regarding the case of the Museum Centre at the University of Pavia in: Fabio Bevilacqua and Maurizio E. Maccarini, “Il business plan del Sistema Museale d’Ateneo dell’Università di Pavia”, in Marketing culturale. Valorizzazione di istituzioni culturali. Strategie di promozione del territorio, ed. Silvia Luraghi and Paola Stringa (Milano: FrancoAngeli, 2006): 69–83.

²⁷ Regarding the role of the so-called “reputation capital” in university marketing, please see the contributions collected in Alessandra Mazzei, ed., Comunicazione e reputazione nelle università (Milano: FrancoAngeli, 2004).

²⁸ With regard to university plaster casts and ancient art galleries, which in the last 15 years have equally been the subject of renewed interest in Italy, see the Italian series of International conferences on Plaster Casts (started in 2006 at the Antonio Canova Museum in Possagno and now in its fourth edition), as well as the more recent university projects in Pavia (Anna Letizia Magrassi Matricardi, “La Raccolta archeologica e la Gipsoteca dell’Universita di Pavia: un progetto museografico di apertura al pubblico e di valorizzazione”, Annali di Storia delle università italiane 2017, no. 1 (2017): 167–76); and Simone Rambaldi, La Gipsoteca del Dipartimento Culture e Società dell’Università degli Studi di Palermo. Storia e Catalogo (Palermo: Palermo University Press, 2017).

²⁹ Regarding the revival and the renovation of university art museums carried out in universities such as Milan, Parma and Padua, see Milena Zanotti, “Vocazione museo: Arte e istituzioni cognitive”, 15 July 2015, Giornale delle Fondazioni, http://www.ilgiornaledellefondazioni.com/content/vocazione-museo-arte-e-istituzioni-cognitive (accessed 10 December 2018).

³⁰ Martino, “Musei e collezioni del patrimonio universitario. Indagine su un sistema culturale diffuso”, cit. (here: 49–51). See also Isabella Mozzoni, Simone Fanelli and Chiara Carolina Donelli, “Italian University Collections: Managing the Artistic Heritage of the University’s Ivory Tower”, ENCATC Journal of Cultural Management and Policy 8, no. 1 (2018): 30–43.

³¹ These data, from the Italian census by the University of Rome “La Sapienza” (Martino, “Musei e collezioni del patrimonio universitario. Indagine su un sistema culturale diffuso”, cit.), are close to the UMAC census, which registers 233 university museums and collections in Italy (see: http://university-museums-and-collections.net/ (accessed 10 December 2018)).

³² Here, we assume a distinction between Museums and Collections, regarding the latter as “’minor’ exhibition structures, which do not necessarily provide systematic organisation or continuous public access” (Martino, “Musei e collezioni del patrimonio universitario. Indagine su un sistema culturale diffuso”, cit.: 44).

³³ Julio Ruiz Berrio, “Historia y Museología de la Educación. Despegue y reconversión de los Museos Pedagógicos”, Historia de la Educación. Revista Interuniversitaria 25 (2006): 271–90.

³⁴ Regarding the Italian context, see Juri Meda, “La conservazione del patrimonio storico-educativo: il caso italiano”, in La historia de la cultura escolar en Italia y en España: presupuestos y perspectivas. Actas del I workshop Italo-Español de Historia de la Cultura Escolar. Berlanga de Duero, 14–16 de novembre de 2011, ed. Ana Badanelli (Macerata: Eum, 2013), 167–98.

³⁵ About the long-standing history of the museum in Rome, repeatedly dismembered and re-founded over time, see Carmela Covato, “Il Museo Storico della Didattica ‘Mauro Laeng’ dell’Università degli Studi Roma Tre”, Ricerche di Pedagogia e Didattica 5, no. 2 (2010), doi:10.6092/issn.1970–-2221/1912. In July 2018 the museum of Roma Tre University was reopened as the new Museum of the School and Education, under the guidance of Lorenzo Cantatore.

³⁶ About the decline of the nineteenth-century pedagogical museums in Italy, see Meda, “La conservazione del patrimonio storico-educativo: il caso italiano”, cit. (here: 171–2 and 195–7). Regarding the emblematic parable of the National Pedagogical Museum in Rome, see Alberto Barausse, I maestri all’università. La scuola pedagogica di Roma. 1904–1923 (Perugia: Morlacchi, 2004), 35–43; and Alessandro Sanzo, Studi su Antonio Labriola e il Museo d’Istruzione e di Educazione (Roma: Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 2012).

³⁷ Giordana Merlo and Fabio Targhetta, “Il Museo dell’Educazione dell’Università di Padova: ragioni, finalità e criteri ispiratori delle collezioni e delle attività”, in La práctica educativa. Historia, memoria y patrimonio, ed. Sara González et al. (Salamanca: FahrenHouse, 2018), 960–70.

³⁸ Anna Ascenzi and Elisabetta Patrizi, “I Musei della scuola e dell’educazione e il patrimonio storico-educativo. Una discussione a partire dall’esperienza del Museo della scuola ‘Paolo e Ornella Ricca’ dell’Università degli Studi di Macerata”, History of Education & Children’s Literature 9, no. 2 (2014): 685–714.

³⁹ Annemarie Augschöll, “L’attività del Centro di ricerca e documentazione sulla storia della formazione in Alto Adige della Libera Università di Bolzano”, in School Exercise Books. A Complex Source for a History of the Approach to Schooling and Education in the 19th and 20th Centuries, ed. Juri Meda, Davide Montino and Roberto Sani (Florence: Polistampa, 2010), 169–74.

⁴⁰ About the research centre and the museum of Campobasso see the recent contribution by Rossella Andreassi, Alberto Barausse and Michela D’Alessio, “Museo de la escuela y de la educación popular de la Università de Molise, Campobasso, Italia”, Cabás 16 (2016): 143–67.

⁴¹ These lines were launched thanks to the seminal work by Julia, “La culture scolaire comme objet historique”, in The Colonial Experience in Education: Historical Issues and Perspectives, ed. Antonio Nóvoa, Marc Depaepe and Erwin W. Johanningmeier, Monographic issue of Paedagogica Historica. Supplementary Series I (1995): 353–82; Marc Depaepe and Frank Simon, “Is there any Place for the History of ‘Education’ in the ‘History of Education’? A plea for the History of Everyday Educational Reality in-and outside Schools”, Paedagogica Historica 30, no. 1 (1995): 9–16. Particularly significant for the development of new approaches in historical-educational research have been many other contributions of scholars too, but here we limit ourselves to mentioning some crucial works that appeared between the late 1990s and the early 2000s: Antonio Viñao Frago, “Por una historia de la cultura escolar: enfoques, cuestiones, fuentes”, in Culturas y civilizaciones, III Congreso de la Asociación de Historia Contemporánea (Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, 1998), 167–83; Ian Grosvenor, Martin Lawn and Kate Rousmaniere, eds., Silences and Images. The Social History of the Classroom (New York: Peter Lang, 1999); Juan Alfredo Jiménez Eguizábal et al., eds., Etnohistoria de la escuela: XII Coloquio nacional de historia de la educación (Burgos: Universidad de Burgos-SEDHE, 2003); Martin Lawn and Ian Grosvenor, eds., Materialities of Schooling. Design, Technology, Objects, Routines (Oxford: Symposium Books, 2005); Agustín Escolano Benito, “La cultura material de la escuela”, in La cultura material de la escuela. En el centenario de la Junta para Ampliación de Estudios, 1907–2007, ed. Id. (Berlanga de Duero: Ceince, 2007), 15–27; Pedro Luis Moreno, “La Historia de la Educación como disciplina y campo de investigación: renovación historiográfica, patrimonio y educación”, in El largo camino hacia una educación inclusiva. La Educación Especial y Social del siglo XIX a nuestros días, ed. Reyes Berruezo and Susana Conejero, vol. 3 (Pamplona: Universidad Pública de Navarra, 2009), 141–51.

⁴² Marta Brunelli, “The ‘Centre for Documentation and Research in History of Textbook & Children’s Literature’ in University of Macerata (Italy)”, History Of Education & Children’s Literature 4, no. 2 (2009): 441–52.

⁴³ See Ascenzi and Patrizi, “I Musei della scuola e dell’educazione e il patrimonio storico-educativo. Una discussione a partire dall’esperienza del Museo della scuola ‘Paolo e Ornella Ricca’ dell’Università degli Studi di Macerata”, cit.; and Marta Brunelli, “The School Museum as a Catalyst for a Renewal of the Teaching of History of Education. Practices and Experiences from the University of Macerata (Italy)”, Educació i Historia 26 (2015): 121–41 (here: 139–41).

⁴⁴ Starting from the suggestions received during the international symposium Image et pédagogie: perspectives internationales, held in Rouen in 2009, Fabio Targhetta has already highlighted these new heuristic perspectives in his contribution entitled: “I musei dell’educazione come risorsa per la ricerca”, History of Education & Children’s Literature 5, no. 1 (2010): 421–31.

⁴⁵ In Italy, the growing interest in this ambit of investigation is evidenced by the recent Italian translation of the work by Agustín Benito Escolano, La cultura empirica della scuola. Esperienza, memoria, archeologia (Ferrara: Volta la Carta, 2016).

⁴⁶ Roberto Sani, “History of Education in Modern and Contemporary Europe: New Sources and Lines of Research”, History of Education Quarterly 53, no. 2 (2013): 184–95.

⁴⁷ On the new research lines started by the group in Macerata and based upon the educational heritage (of tangible and intangible nature as well) see, for example: Juri Meda, Mezzi di educazione di massa. Saggi di storia della cultura materiale della scuola tra XIX e XX secolo (Milano: FrancoAngeli, 2016); Marta Brunelli and Juri Meda, “Gymnastics between School Desks: An Educational Practice between Hygiene Requirements, Health Care and Logistic Inadequacies in Italian Primary Schools (1870–1970)”, History of Education Review 46, no. 2 (2017): 178–93; Anna Ascenzi and Marta Brunelli, “Accomplishing «The Silent Mission of Italian Women at War». The fascist ‘Pedagogy of War’ for Women: From the Kitchen Front to the War Garden”, History of Education & Children’s Literature 11, no. 1 (2016): 497–522; Anna Ascenzi and Elisabetta Patrizi, “Inside School Lives: Historiographical Perspectives and Case Studies. Teachers’ Memories Preserved at the Centre for Documentation and Research on the History of Schoolbooks and Children’s Literature”, Espacio, Tiempo y Educación 3, no. 1 (2016): 343–62; Anna Ascenzi, “«Italian beauties». The Italian cultural heritage and its landscape and natural resources in the school exercise books from the Fascist period to the World War II”, History of Education & Children’s Literature 12, no. 1 (2017): 213–47; Juri Meda and Marta Brunelli, “The Dumb Child. Contribution to the study of the Iconogenesis of the Dunce-Cap”, History of Education & Children’s Literature 13, no. 1 (2018): 41–70; Marta Brunelli, “Pour une histoire de la production industrielle de matériels didactiques en Italie entre la fin du XIXe et la première moitie du XXe siècle”, in Education et culture matérielle en France et en Europe du XVIe siècle a nos jours, ed. Marguerite Figeac-Monthus (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2018), 109–32; and Juri Meda, “Patentes e monopólios industriais: novas fontes para uma história da indústria escolar. Primeiras sondagens nos arquivos italianos (1880–1960)”, in Cultura material escolar em perspectiva histórica: escritas e possibilidades, ed. Vera L. Gaspar da Silva, Gizele de Souza and Cesar A. Castro (Vitória: EDUFES Editora): 452–9.

⁴⁸ Council of Europe, Recommendation No. R(98)5 of the Committee of Ministers to member states concerning Heritage Education. Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 17 March 1998 at the 623rd meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies, https://rm.coe.int/ (accessed 28 April 2019).

⁴⁹ See Tim Copeland, European Democratic Citizenship, Heritage Education and Identity (Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 2006), here: 17–21, and, more recently, Nicole Gesche-Koning, Research for CULT Committee-Education in Cultural Heritage (Brussels: European Parliament-Policy Department for Structural and Cohesion Policies, June 2018), here: 16–18, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=IPOL_STU(2018)617486 (accessed 28 April 2019).

⁵⁰ Council of Europe, Recommendation No. R(2017)1 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on the European Cultural Heritage Strategy for the 21st century. Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 22 February 2017 at the 1278th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies, https://rm.coe.int/ (accessed 28 April 2019).

⁵¹ An issue, that of inclusion and accessibility, which educational museums also have to address. See, in this regard, Pablo Álvarez Domínguez, “Accesibilidad e inclusión en espacios museísticos. Algunas reflexiones críticas desde los Museos de Educación”, in Accesibilidad y museos: divulgación y transferencia de experiencias, retos y oportunidades de futuro, ed. Ana M. Galán-Pérez and Elena López Gil (Sevilla: Asociación de Museólogos y Museógrafos de Andalucía-Junta de Andalucía, 2017), 139–46.

⁵² The partners of the initiative are Anffas-National Association of Families with Persons with Intellectual and/or Relational Disabilities, and the Community of Capodarco in Fermo, a non-profit association working nationwide in assisting sick and disabled as well as poor and abandoned people.

⁵³ In drafting the facilitated audio-description, we referred to the European standards for making information easy to read and understand created within the EU project Pathways, https://easy-to-read.eu/it/ (accessed 10 December 2018), on the one hand. On the other, the guidelines for the audio-description in museums have been used: in particular those edited by the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB), Museums, Galleries and Heritage Sites: Improving Access for Blind and Partially Sighted People. The Talking Images Guide (2003); and the Guidelines for Verbal Description written within the project Art Beyond Sight, coordinated by the non-profit organisation Art Education for the Blind, http://www.artbeyondsight.org/handbook/acs-guidelines.shtml (accessed 10 December 2018).

⁵⁴ About the genesis and implementation of the project see: Anna Ascenzi and M. Brunelli, “Lezione al buio. Percorsi inclusivi al Museo della Scuola ‘Paolo e Ornella Ricca’”, in In azione. Prove di inclusione, ed. Catia Giaconi and Noemi Del Bianco (Milano: FrancoAngeli, 2019), 67–82. About the evaluation of the 2018 edition see now: Benedetta Indirli, “Vedere con la mente. La ‘Lezione al buio’ al Museo della Scuola ‘Paolo e Ornella Ricca’: dal progetto alla valutazione” (Master’s Thesis in History of Education (Supervisor: Prof. Marta Brunelli), University of Macerata, 2019).

⁵⁵ Such educational-technological tools, after being tested and perfected, can be released on the market as free or paid Apps – depending on the involvement of profit or non-profit partners.

⁵⁶ About this new educational planning Workshop – launched in 2016, and linked to the history of education courses – see footnote 68.

⁵⁷ Since 2016 the editions co-organised with the University have recorded a good audience with an average of 850 participants every year, including pupils and teachers involved in the competition, students’ families participating in the public events (theatrical events and exhibitions) and participants in training workshops. Source: Annual report of the Museum (years: 2016, 2017 and 2018).

⁵⁸ The neologism crowdsourcing was coined to describe participatory research projects developed thanks to the volunteer contributions of Internet users, who are invited to gather sources and information on a large scale. Well-known to public historians, the methodology of crowdsourcing has taken great advantage of the new information technologies, and it is now widely used especially in the field of digital history. For a reflection on the status of Italian research, compared to the international scene, see Serge Noiret, “Digital History 2.0”, in L’histoire contemporaine à l’ère numérique. Contemporary History in the Digital Age, ed. Frédéric Clavert and Serge Noiret (Bruxelles: Peter Lang, 2013), 155–90; and, by the same author, “Storia pubblica digitale”, Zapruder. Storie in movimento 36 (2015): 9–23.

⁵⁹ Marta Brunelli, “La comunicación y la interpretación del patrimonio educativo en los museos: espejo y reflejo de una disciplina en transformación”, in Espacios y Patrimonio Histórico-Educativo, ed. Pauli Davila and Luis M. Naya (San Sebastián: Erein, 2016): 79–95.

⁶⁰ The research carried out by the high-school students has been illustrated in the digital monograph: Massimo Bracci, ed., C’era una volta una scuola di legno [Once upon a time there was a wooden school]. By the classes III B and III C (Macerata: Classic Lyceum G. Leopardi, school year 2017/2019), http://classicomacerata.gov.it/ (accessed 28 April 2019).

⁶¹ The project described is part of the doctoral research carried out by Eleonora Rampichini (Tra memoria della scuola e valorizzazione del patrimonio. Il caso del Museo della Scuola «Paolo and Ornella Ricca» dell’Università di Macerata. Research supervisor: Prof. Marta Brunelli). The implemented methodologies and the evaluation of the outcomes of the project will be illustrated in the final thesis.

⁶² See now: Marta Brunelli, “«Non-Places» of School Memory. First Reflections on the Forgotten Places of Education as Generators of Collective School Memory: Between Oral History, Public History and Digital History”, History of Education & Children’s Literature 14, no. 1 (2019): 49–72.

⁶³ As known, the European Researchers’ Night is an initiative promoted and co-funded by the European Commission since 2005.

⁶⁴ The event was conceived and realized by the team of the museum in collaboration with the Communication Office of the University.

⁶⁵ In the two weeks following the event, the number of accesses to the museum’s Facebook page increased by 18% as well as the total number of contacts by phone/email, which has led to a 4% growth in requests for museum visits, particularly by families. Source: monthly statistics of the Facebook page (see also the Annual report of the Museum, year 2018).

⁶⁶ In 2012 the Museum launched the campaign “Dona la tua memoria” (Donate your memory), which allows not only citizens, such as former pupils and former teachers, but also schools to donate their old school objects and other material. See the dedicated webpage, http://museodellascuola.unimc.it/dona-la-tua-memoria/ (accessed 8 October 2018).

⁶⁷ Joyce Goodman and Ian Grosvenor, “Educational Research: History of Education: A Curious Case?”, Oxford Review of Education 35, no. 5 (2009): 601–16 (here: 612).

⁶⁸ Students can carry out a curricular internship, whose duration varies from a minimum of 150 hours to a maximum of 250 hours, and which is developed in accordance with an educational project agreed between each student and his/her academic supervisor. The internship is recognised with the attribution of a number of CFUs in a measure established by the Class Council of each degree course.

⁶⁹ Initially offered as extra-curricular activity, in the academic year 2017–2018 the School Museum Workshop was definitely included as an elective course in the curriculum of the Master’s degree (5 years) in “Primary education sciences” (LM-85bis), which qualifies graduates to teach in pre-primary and primary schools.

⁷⁰ At the University of Macerata, the admission quota for the aforementioned degree LM-85bis cannot exceed the number of 230 students per academic year.

⁷¹ Susanne Spieker and Angelo Van Gorp, “Capacity Building and Communitas in the History of Education”, Paedagogica Historica 52, no. 6 (2016): 768–883.

⁷² Simonetta Polenghi and Gianfranco Bandini, “The History of Education in its Own Light: Signs of Crisis, Potential for Growth”, Espacio, Tiempo y Educación 3, no. 1 (2016): 3–20 (here: 4).

⁷³ Gary McCulloch, The Struggle for the History of Education (Abingdon: Routledge, 2011), here: 98–111.

⁷⁴ For the Spanish situation, see the recent works: Pablo Álvarez Domínguez, Paulí Dávila Balsera and Luis María Naya Garmendia, “Education Museums: Historical Educational Discourse, Typology and Characteristics: The Case of Spain”, Paedagogica Historica: International journal of the history of education 53, no. Extra 6 (2017): 827–45; Pablo Álvarez Domínguez, coord., Los museos pedagógicos en España: entre la memoria y la creatividad (Gijón: Trea, 2016). About the French scenario see: Michel Mieussens and Claude Bouhier, “Un réseau qui doit s’organiser: les 170 musées de l’école en France”, in La France savante [online], dir. Arnaud Hurel (Paris: Éditions du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, 2017): 366–79, doi:10.4000/books.cths.2796; and Première Rencontre francophone des musées de l’école. Actes (Futuroscope, Chasseneuil-du-Poitou: Canope editions, 2018), https://www.reseau-canope.fr/musee/fileadmin/user_upload/Premiere-Rencontre-Francophone-Musees-Ecole-Actes.pdf (accessed 8 October 2018).

⁷⁵ As is known, many scientific associations of the historical-educational heritage have been set up, from the 1980s to now, both in Europe (France, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, United Kingdom, Greece) and outside Europe (Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Canada), just to mention the most representative cases. Such a scenario was enriched, in 2017, with the birth of the AMNEPE-Amis du musée national de l’éducation, des musées de l’école et du patrimoine éducatif (in France) and the SIPSE-Società Italiana per lo Studio del Patrimonio Storico-Educativo (in Italy).

⁷⁶ Gesche-Koning, Research for CULT Committee-Education in Cultural Heritage, cit. (here: 39).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna Ascenzi

Anna Ascenzi is Full Professor in History of Education in the Department of Education, Cultural Heritage and Tourism at the University of Macerata. Acting Director of the Centre for Research on History of Textbooks and Children’s Literature (CESCO), since 2012 she has been also directing the “Paolo and Ornella Ricca” School Museum in the same university. Her research covers topics in history of education and children’s literature (especially gender education, nation-building, history of subject teaching in schools) as well as on the role of educational heritage as a change agent to foster innovation in higher education. Currently she is president of the Italian Society for the Study of Educational Heritage (SIPSE). She is co-author (with Roberto Sani) of the recent work: Storia e antologia della letteratura per l’infanzia nell’Italia dell’Ottocento (2 vols., 2017–2018). She is a member of the executive council of the journal History of Education & Children’s Literature.

Marta Brunelli

Marta Brunelli is Associate Professor in General and Social Education in the Department of Education, Cultural Heritage and Tourism at the University of Macerata. She is member of the Executive Board of the Centre for Documentation and Research on History of Textbooks and Children’s Literature (CESCO), and coordinator of educational services of the “Paolo and Ornella Ricca” School Museum. Her work focuses on heritage education, with a special regard to school museums as educational resources. Her recent books are: L’educazione al patrimonio storico-scolastico (2018) and Heritage Interpretation. Un nuovo approccio per l’educazione al patrimonio (2014). Since 2006 she has been the editorial manager of the journal History of Education & Children’s Literature.

Juri Meda

Juri Meda is Associate Professor in History of Education in the Department of Education, Cultural Heritage and Tourism at the University of Macerata. In the same university he is a member of the Executive Board of the Centre for Documentation and Research on History of Textbooks and Children’s Literature (CESCO) and of the “Paolo and Ornella Ricca” School Museum. Currently he is secretary of the Italian Society for the Study of Educational Heritage (SIPSE). He is the author of articles and scientific contributions on the history of education. His recent books are: School Memories. New Trends in the History of Education (2017), edited with Cristina Yanes Cabrera and Antonio Viñao, and Mezzi di educazione di massa. Saggi di storia della cultura materiale della scuola tra XIX e XX secolo (2016).