Educational approaches and contexts in the development of a heritage museum

Background: Educational museums are composed of objects, documents, and narratives that together create a learning experience. Existing models of museum education tend to analyze the visitor experience, but rarely take into consideration the unique characteristics and challenges of multicultural heritage museums. Purpose: This article proposes a conceptual model of experiential multicultural museum education that delineates teaching approaches in multicultural museum education. Methodology/Approach: The article is grounded in the framework of conceptual research aimed at identifying and clarifying key characteristics and educational concepts raised by museum’s designers and educators. The analysis it presents is based on insights learned during the design of the Interactive Jewish Museum of Chile. Findings/Conclusions: The major contribution of this article is the development of a conceptual model that allows for the identification of three approaches in multicultural museum education: the academic-educational approach, the artistic approach, and the identity-cultural approach. Implications: Our model can be applied to other heritage museums, and can be useful for the training and development of formal and informal educators interested in including multicultural heritage museums as experiential learning spaces.