Informal Learning and Rural Poverty: Title 1 Middle School Students’ Perceptions of a Museum Exhibition

• In Event: 207 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 04. The Role of Social and Cultural Capital

Abstract

While schools are places of learning, a great deal of learning occurs outside formal school settings and classrooms. Existing research has analyzed the curricular connectivity between formal learning in the classroom and informal learning attending a museum exhibition (Tin-yau Lo, 2008). A school field trip to a museum exhibition can foster learning opportunities and cultivate meaningful, informal learning experiences. However there is little research investigating how educators utilize and diverse learners from lower socio-economic households access museums. This study investigated the impact of five Title 1 middle school students’ perceptions of a traveling exhibition from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) displayed at a university in the U.S. southeast. Through interviews with teachers and docents, student surveys, and students’ written reflections immediately after viewing the exhibition, extensive qualitative data were collected. Findings interpret the gathered data through Dewey’s (1938) conceptualization of experiential learning and advance the importance of informal learning opportunities in students from rural Title 1 schools. Conclusions identify the gap of material and resources between national exhibitions and host exhibitions, and recommend that museums devote more attention to developing guidelines and pedagogical resources on how to program the traveling exhibition for K-12 audiences and the training of docents.

Author

• James Badger, University of North Georgia