Closing Thoughts and Possibilities for Museum Literacies
This article presents how museum literacies were used by adolescents in a museum that displays archaeological artifacts. To some, these data might elicit views of adolescent literacy crises: how participants chiefly ignored printed museum texts although those texts were prominently displayed, plentiful, and in many cases arguably engaging. It is reasonable, however, to take the comments of some participants represented in this article at face value: what was seen in the museum took precedence over what was written. Indeed, to put words to remarkable Discount Merrell Shoes objects and spaces may sometimes separate such encounters from what gives them their richest meanings. And to appropriate youth practices while on their own in museums—such as incorporating popular youth culture that threaded through the present study—into formal education activities could likewise separate the very aspects of museum encounters from what is most meaningful and enjoyable for young people.
In this vein, the greatest value of the museum experience may well be how visitors, such as the adolescents in the present study, use museums freely, that is, on their own and for their own purposes. And to be free was an attractive part of adolescent museum excursions as shown through the investigation, whether it was, for example, escape through fantasy play, as was the case with Frank and Tom darting among museum labyrinths, or by turning a corner to go beyond adult purview, as did Flo aka Mic and Bishop to discuss an interesting object in their own terms. These movements through, and readings of, space are an important aspect of museum literacies and suggest degrees of freedom perhaps not available in many education settings. In times when liberties and choices are often considered precious and rare commodities in education, as well as in wider communities, museums may offer important possibilities for engaging in most valuable aspects of literacies.
Nonetheless, the museum excursion elicited words and actions from the adolescents worthy of consideration and also indicated directions for literacy practice. As mentioned by Madeline, a teacher participant in the present study, these words and actions, as well as specific museum content, were not used during her class trip or followed up in classroom activities, which implies missed education possibilities. It is reasonable to assume that museum texts and spaces, often tied explicitly to cultures and cultural values, offer opportunities for extensions into critical literacy activities that tease out various agendas, purposes, and interests (Stevens & Bean, 2007). On the other hand, a way for teachers to formalize museum field trips would be to provide opportunities similar to what Meredith, the Bedford executive director, had designed. For example, students could be given a printed piece similar to a treasure hunt, as Meredith described. Such activities would be familiar to literacy educators especially if they conceptualize museum space as text, exhibits as chapters, and so forth; the museum treasure hunt is expressly a search-and-find activity in which answers are embedded in the museum text, or in words familiar to literacy educators—”right there” and “think and search” questions and answers (Raphael, 1986). The questions listed in Table 3 (adapted from Franzak & Noll, 2006), which treat museum objects and the spaces they occupy as textual compositions, could be a first step in nudging museum visits beyond simple field trips.
In short, museum spaces, objects, and other compositions can be critiqued as can any text. And to be sure, topics that came forward in the present investigation could provide opportunities to discuss some of the pressing issues of our times—such as objects of war and violence, race, and slavery—and their relations to museums, cultures, and literacies. Perhaps against conventional views, museum excursions by adolescents on their own, such as ones shown in this article, open avenues to uses of pleasure in education, aligned with what other researchers report in other spaces (e.g., Smith & Wilhelm, 2002). Take for instance how Periwinkle and Chastain Merrell Shoes used mundane aspects of museum displays—the labels—and transformed those into play using decoding strategies. Further, adolescent participants’ pleasures were sometimes related to popular aspects of youth culture, as was the case while Bart and Clifford related gallery spaces to video games. In this vein, Periwinkle’s statement about the impressive warrior’s garment, “We just looked at it,” may point to pleasures of seeing not fettered by goals of formal learning and perhaps supports notions that certain things cannot be said or written, only seen or felt. These points deserve serious consideration by educators wanting to engage students in contemporary literacy issues.
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