On difficult history displayed: the pedagogical challenges of interminable learning

Abstract

To cite this article: Brenda M. Trofanenko (2011) On difficult history displayed: the pedagogical challenges of interminable learning, Museum Management and Curatorship, 26:5, 481-495,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.

It Takes Courage: Fostering the Development of Critical, Social Justice-Oriented Teachers Using Museum and Project-Based Instruction

“…Postmuseum sites offer opportunities for participants to critique and disentangle ideal (and false) representations of the past and present (Marcus, Levine, & Grenier, 2012;Schmidt & Garrett, 2011;Trofanenko, 2006Trofanenko, , 2011. Challenging assumptions regarding historical and contemporary society, participants can engage in thoughtful discourse and development of social justice theory and praxis.…”

“…Museums can be used not only as places for critical inquiry for K-12 students (Trofanenko, 2006(Trofanenko, , 2011, but also preservice and in-service teachers (Garrett, 2009). Preand postactivities are essential components to encourage active engagement with the exhibit and to foster dialogue around social (in)justice (Marcus et al, 2012).…”

Museums, Decolonization and Indigenous Artists as First Cultural Responders at the new Canadian Museum for Human Rights

“…Scholars agree that curating state-orchestrated narratives of reconciliation risks erasing living histories and could inflict further harm by imposing a new social memory of progress over the injustices and social inequities that stem from the legacies of past wrongdoing (Ashley 2005(Ashley , 2011Logan 2014;Mackey 2012;Stanley 2012). Moreover, over the past three decades, the museum literature has challenged the accepted notion of museum neutrality and authority and advocated for institutions to take a more activist approach in their exhibition and curatorial practices (Lonetree 2012;Sandell 2011Sandell , 2017Simon 2011Simon , 2014Smith 2012;Trofanenko 2011).…”

“…Non-Indigenous visitors might feel shock, revulsion, grief, and shame at their own complicity with the ongoing systemic violence and colonization borne by Indigenous peoples. Recent considerations of 'affect' in education (Atkinson 2011;Massumi 2011) have also been extended to museums (Witcomb 2013;Trofanenko 2011). Australian researcher Andrea Witcomb (2013) writes that affective encounters aimed to heighten visitor engagement can enable critical reflection in audiences; an element of surprise or shock in historic exhibitions gives visitors a sense of the historical differences between past, present, and future.…”

Encountering the victims of Romanian communism: young people and empathy in a memorial museum

“…Up to this point the discussion has focused on emotional and empathetic experiences, but it is also apparent that empathy is about more than just feeling. Recent research in museum/heritage studies has emphasized that emotional and cognitive experiences in a museum cannot be disentangled (Trofanenko 2011;Witcomb 2013;Smith and Campbell 2016;Savenije and de Bruijn 2017;Mulcahy and Witcomb 2018) and this is particularly the case with empathy. Developing empathy requires understanding and thought about the circumstances of the "other" (Savenije and de Bruijn 2017) which, in turn, can lead to an emotional response and connection (Landsberg 2004).…”