Making the most of citizenship learning across cultural institutions

This article explores how teachers and students can make the most of citizenship learning opportunities when they visit cultural institutions such as museums, galleries, and memorial parks. It shares insights from 150 Years: 150 Buses, a project that supported school groups to visit two or more of Wellington’s nationally significant institutions in 2015. Taking concept-led and critical-thinking approaches to the pre-visit preparation and post-visit follow-up made a difference to depth of learning that was generated. It is suggested that citizenship learning could be further enhanced by teachers considering the learning that occurs during the visit, for example, by taking a critical approach to thinking about the citizenship narratives being presented. As an example, the article offers a strategy for supporting learners to deconstruct, and then later reconstruct, their experiences in cultural institutions.