How should Social Studies Lessons collaborate with Museum Curators?: A Case Study of Curator’s Perceptions for School-museum Partnership in Japan

This study reports the results of an empirical investigation of Japanese museum curators’ perceptions of the role of museums in the school-museum relationship. Findings are based on data collected through semi-structured interviews with seven museum curators located in Aichi and Gifu prefectures and analyzed using M-GTA (Kinoshita, 2003; 2007; 2016). Interviews with seven curators indicate that perceptions of museums’ role were formed not only by their relationship with the schools they worked with but also by the interconnectedness of the curators’ individual work experiences and their responsibility to the expectations of the local community, including the government and visitors. These findings suggest that curators confront collections based on foundations while coordinating with relationships with schools and considering local community demands. Curator recognizes museums’ role as a social space through interactions with schools and communities. In this case study, we observed a museum that faced difficulties in its relationship with the local community, including schools. Therefore, conceptualizing curators as “creators” in social studies classes may help schools and museums establish a closer relationship.