“Exhibiting” Lifelong Learning in Museums: The Museum of Education/ Xeniseum as a space of Civic Understanding and Social Connectedness

Abstract

By allowing people to share what they already know and utilize it with others, museums are able to use their collections and related programs as catalysts for dialogue and learning, encouraging active participation, exchange of views, social interaction and critical reflection, which are fundamental to adult education. In such a context, the learning experience that is acquired in the museum can be seen as a cultural achievement against social exclusion and social discrimination. In this sense, the museum exhibiting the lifelong learning represents different cultures/ identities and motivates us to give them our own meaning. That is, we see identities as social achievements in the context of civic understanding and social connectedness, embedded in their contexts, and not outside of them. In the present paper we aim to explain how the interaction with the Xeniseum’s exhibits can lead to the development of the visitors’ citizenship. In that framework, we examine the role of the museum regarding an individual’s education. Specific museum activities are also reported. Finally, a more specified museum application is described, aspiring to the achievement of a cross cultural dialogue.