Cross-sectoral collaboration between schools and museums on interdisciplinary teaching in public health and life skills
In today’s education policy and practice, co-creation and collaboration between different actors and sectors, such as schools and museums, are highlighted as central to improving the quality of teaching. In recent years, the concept of co-creation has gained increasing status in policy, research, and practice. By co-creation, we mean people with different experiences and perspectives coming together to develop something new.
The need for closer collaboration between schools and museums has been emphasized by Norwegian education authorities. Museums are well-documented as important arenas for learning, and cultural heritage as a tool for both educational and health perspectives is increasingly recognized. This collaboration is cross-sectoral, and the project explores how such collaboration is conceptualized in policy, how it unfolds in practice, and what results it produces. A key focus is on how public health and life skills can be integrated into teaching in ways that are relevant to both the school curriculum and the museum’s educational mission. Teaching in this area is also intended to strengthen students’ life skills and help prevent dropout from upper secondary education. However, despite good intentions, research shows that cross-sectoral collaborations in schools are easy to call for, but difficult to carry out with good results. While the intention of mutual partnership is clear, challenges often arise. Schools and museums share a societal mandate for education and cultural formation, but operate under different political frameworks with different goals and practices.
At the same time, the museum sector is under growing pressure to demonstrate added value to society, and museums want to remain relevant, up to date, and audience-oriented. Schools are a key partner in this work. Collaboration on interdisciplinary teaching in public health and life skills offers opportunities for both parties: it can make cultural heritage and interdisciplinary education more relevant for students, while also strengthening how both schools and museums fulfill their societal missions. This can create a closer, more fruitful collaboration and a win-win situation for both sides. But what actually happens when these institutions meet? What characterizes the dialogue, and what kinds of practices emerge in the collaboration process?
The project is expected to generate new knowledge about the collaboration process between teachers and museum educators, and about how professional tensions and structural conditions influence the collaboration. There is limited research on practice-oriented cases of school–museum collaboration in Norway, especially regarding interdisciplinary teaching. The project will also shed light on the tension between political expectations and the realities of practice. Its results may be of value for teachers and museum educators working together on teaching, and contribute to broader reflections on cross-sectoral collaboration between school and museum, and between education and culture in policy.
Prosjektet er 3-årig og er et samarbeid mellom Thor Heyerdahl videregående skole og Universitetet i Sørøst-Norge. Prosjektet har to hovedmål: Det ene er å utvikle tverrsektorielt samarbeid mellom skole og museum for å styrke samarbeidet, og dermed bidra til å skape mer relevant tverrfaglig undervisning for elevene. Det andre er å studere hvordan samarbeidet konseptualiseres i politikk, og hvordan dialogbasert samarbeid mellom de to tverrsektorielle partnerne foregår i praksis og resulterer i. Målgruppen er elever i videregående skole. Prosessen i samarbeidet om å utvikle undervisningen vil være hovedfokus for forskningen. Forskningsdesignet er casedesign. Metoder er deltakende observasjon og fokusgruppeintervjuer med lærere og museumsformidlere. Datamaterialet er feltnotater, observasjonsnotater, elevlogger og transkripsjoner. Prosjektet vil bidra til økt kunnskap om tverrsektorielle partnerskap i skolen og mellom skole og museum, men også til tettere samarbeid mellom skolen og museet. Det vil bli utarbeidet tverrfaglig undervisning i det tverrfaglige temaet "Folkehelse og livsmestring" for målgruppa elever i videregående skole.
