Shared Journeys Curriculum Theory and Museum Education

Abstract

Informal and formal educators are scrutinizing particular representations of the world more often and asking whose voices are being heard and which interpretations concur or challenge learners' life worlds. Curriculum theory has emerged as a significant partner to theorize museum education practice to address ethics, equity, and accountability. The growing relationship between museum education and curriculum theory is grounded in five common concerns for shaping and sharing knowledge. The concerns include knowledge production, adherence to a democratic ideal, the art and act of choosing knowledge, curriculum as text, and ethics of interpretation. Increasingly, more museum educators are looking to curriculum theory for analytic tools to explore education, tools that also invigorate reflective and critical conversations about how we practice museum education.