The Educational Promise of Public History Museum Exhibits

Brenda M. Trofanenko

28 citations0/0 files storedTheory & Research in Social Education

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Museums and Cultural Heritage Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration

Abstract

Public history museums play a critical role in validating a nation's history. The museum's institutional strategies of object display are used to define a particular representation of past events. Museum displays of war are of particular interest not only because they provide evidence of past wars, but also because they serve to advance national identity, nationalism, and patriotism – often without critical reflection on their broader educational impact. By examining one exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History (NMAH), The Price of Freedom: Americans at War, the author shows how the NMAH displays war as a significant event in U.S. history. She also shows how this representation of various wars does not encourage the viewing public to critically consider how the value and meaning of war is framed within a museum context.

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References

1985Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism 1994Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism 20005. The Practice of Everyday Life 2018THE PRACTICE OF EVERYDAY LIFE 1997Questions of Cultural Identity 1995Collective Memory and Cultural Identity 2011Introduction: Who Needs ‘Identity’?1998The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History

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2014Pastplay 2018Learning History Beyond School 2014Museum Visits in Social Studies: The Role of a Methods Course 2020The Museum Learning Experience Through the Visitors’ Eyes: An Eye Tracking Exploration of the Physical Context 2025Cognitive Style and Visual Attention in Multimodal Museum Exhibitions: An Eye-Tracking Study on Visitor Experience 2021Examining Elementary Social Studies Preservice Teachers’ Dispositional Thinking about Museum Pedagogy

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