An Investigation Of The Mechanisms Of Museum-School Co-operation In China

Co-operation between museums and schools arose as a new movement in the academic and museum worlds in the last century. It was an expression of the modern museum’s turn towards public service and education, and at the same time it reflected reforming trends in international education and an adjustment in the boundaries of the functions of schools. In China too, with the foundation of a series of new-look modern museums in the latter stage of Reform and Opening, and with the curriculum reform movement, some attempts have been made at co-operation between museum and school groups. This study takes the history, current state, main events and institutional structures of this co-operation as its central theme. Using methods which include documentary research, interviews, qualitative and quantitative data analysis and theoretical modeling, it provides a comprehensive study of co-operation between museums and schools in China, attempting to make new discoveries about this topic in a Chinese context and gain new insights into it, and to map out some possible future directions.The first part of this study is descriptive. It starts by explaining briefly the background to the study, why the topic was chosen and why it is significant. It continues with the definition of key concepts in "museum-school co-operation", and once this foundation has been laid it proceeds to an account of aims, structure and methods, along with a brief review of studies of this topic in China and the West.The second and third parts look into the main lines of the history of museum-school co-operation in China and the West, its general background, its motivation and its problems, taking the view that this modern day co-operation is an evolving historical process. The main motives for it in China, in a general sense, include such factors as the scarcity of educational resources, the public nature of museums and schools, the natural "fit" between the functions of museums and schools, and the wish to gain access to external resources, receive preferential resource allocation and lower transaction costs. However its further penetration has been inhibited by a number of other factors, such as insufficient supply and conflicting aims within the co-operation system, decision-making being dependent on administrative departments, and the inherent differences between China’s museums and schools.The fourth and fifth parts of the study are based on empirical survey evidence, and apply qualitative and quantitative analytical techniques like grounded theory, principal component analysis and cluster analysis to the analysis of the present state of museum-school co-operation in China, the forms it takes and the factors which bear on it, and also of the perceptions and motivations of the various stake-holders. It takes the view that museum-school co-operation in China is still in its infancy. Despite universal acceptance of the educative role of museums, co-operation between the two types of institution is still rudimentary in the main, with a prevalence of short-term opportunism leading to one-off initiatives and uneven co-operation. There are different collective attitudes to the co-operation and its results, each side trying to keep the other in check, and there are examples of "free rider" behavior. Other factors also have a role-security, distance, numbers of people, teacher performance appraisal and student academic evaluation systems, funding, manpower, management and attitudes.The sixth part of the study taking the three main stakeholders, internal administrators and executors of the co-operation, museum and school organizations and co-operation work organizations, and government institutions, it carries out a quantitative analysis of their interactive relationships and the factors affecting the evolution of their conduct. The conclusion is that the rewards, investments, willingness to cooperate, and choices of move of the main actors, along with the initial set-up of the co-operation, are important factors determining the final outcome of its evolution. Under different conditions the co-operation leads to a variety of different evolutionary outcomes.The seventh part constructs a general model for museum-school co-operation, including inputs, operating mechanisms, supervision and motivational work. We believe that standardization and improvement of the conduct of stakeholders in museum-school co-operation and the orderly and steady development of specific practice is sure to find a guarantee in such mechanisms of co-operation, and that the complexity of specific mechanisms must be fully taken into account when mechanisms of co-operation are devised.The study ends by summarizing the conclusions, new findings and limitations of the research, and by looking ahead at the possibilities for future research.