The Journal of Social Studies Education in Asia, Vol.11, pp.63-75, 2022

〈ARTICLES〉
How should Social Studies Lessons collaborate with Museum
Curators?: A Case Study of Curator’s Perceptions for Schoolmuseum Partnership in Japan
Tomoki Nakayama

Doctoral Student, Hyogo University of Teacher Education, Japan
E-Mail: zb110236@edu.gifu-u.ac.jp

Abstract
This study reports the results of an empirical investigation of Japanese museum curators’ perceptions of the roleof 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 wereformed not only by their relationship with the schools they worked with but also by the interconnectedness ofthe 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 thiscase 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 andmuseums establish a closer relationship.
Keywords: School-museum partnership, Curators’ perceptions, Social studies, Modified grounded theory
approach

Introduction
This study reports the results of an empirical investigation of Japanese museum curators’ perceptions of
the role of museums in the school-museum relationship. In recent years, school-museum partnership has been
positioned as an important research issue in social studies education research, and research is being accumulated
internationally. There is growing interest in the interaction between museum visits and the social studies
curriculum, for example, interaction between museum visits/resources and pre-service teachers (Kaschak, 2014;63

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Seeger et al., 2016) and possibility for museums to be an educational resource and pre-service teachers’
perceptions (Görmez, 2020; Er & Yılmaz, 2020). This background to grow interest in museums is that museum
spaces have come to be seen as “places for meaningful learning” rather than simply as exhibition spaces. Also,
the closer these relationships between schools and museums are the better, but according to report of a case studyof teachers and museums in Israel showed that differences of relationship between teachers and curators
according to the type of school and what the teacher wants from the museum (Tal & Steiner 2006). Thus,
examining the relationship between schools and museums is an important opportunity for the social studies
curriculum to encounter contexts outside of school, and an important issue for social studies education aimed atdeveloping citizenship to achieve its objectives. In addition, there is an awareness of the issue of museum
narratives in social studies education, and the importance of focusing on how the past is represented and staged(especially in history museums) in order to expand children’s epistemological views (Stoddard, 2018). This isbecause museum exhibitions are affected by a variety of factors, including financial problems and external socialand political pressures. However, museums has also “powerful role in shaping students’ conceptions of their
possibilities as civic actors” (Stoddard et al., 2015). From this point of view, the key to examining the relationshipbetween schools and museums is not limited to expanding students’ opportunities to visit museums, but also to
how social studies teachers perceive and understand the exhibition space as a place of learning.
In the Japanese context, the 2017/18 course of study in Japan has strengthened the system of cooperationand collaboration between schools and society to provide a curriculum open to society. This initiative strives toensure that school education helps students develop practical skills that they can use in their lives throughcooperation and collaboration with society. In order to build such a system, it is important that collaboration
between entire schools and communities exists. School-museum cooperation is one aspect of this initiative.
There are various forms of exposition partnerships, but they all aim to educate children through cooperation withschools and society such as through museums. In museum studies in Japan, the relationship with schools has
been traditionally understood as a major issue (Ueno, 1985; Shiokawa, 1990; Taru et al, 2001). The main focus
has been on the development of educational programs, evaluation, and its effectiveness (Nagahata, 1994;
Nishigaki & Nunotani2005; Nishio, 2008). Previous studies have mainly focused on the content provided bymuseums, the communities that connect schools and museums, and sharing the philosophy and purpose ofcollaboration (Ogawa, 2019). As such, there is growing interest not only in the institutional aspects that define
the cooperation system, such as the content of educational projects, but also the factors that led to its establishment
and social context. This study examined the perspectives of research on social studies education in Japan on
school-museum partnership.
Research on social studies education in Japan has investigated the significance of learning in museums
by experiencing reality and arousing interest and has considered its educational effectiveness (Ogasawara, 2010;
Matsuoka, 2006; Fukuyama, 2010). For example, Fujita (2003) focused on learners’ worksheet and attempted
to categorize social studies in museums. Nakamura (2010) focused on the gap between school and museum
education and proposed education in which learners construct their own historical images based on the premiseof a multitude of historical images. These studies analyze learning in museums from the perspectives of social
cognition and interpretive learning. As such, previous studies have attempted to connect social studies lessons
and learning in museums, using learners’ worksheet as a guide.
However, these studies have focused on educational content, such as learners’ worksheet, to understand64

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the learning system in museums from the perspective of social studies. These studies have not sufficiently
considered the interactions between schools and museums. Interaction between school and society is a newperspective for Japanese curriculum research and development, which has traditionally focused on interaction
within-subjects (Yamada et al., 2019). This is an important issue in social studies education research in Japan. It
is necessary to rethink school-museum partnership in relation to the subjects and elucidate how the subjects
interact with the museums they cooperate with in order to respond to social demands. In particular, curators, who
are directly involved with teachers and serve as contact points for museums play an important role in thecooperation system; however, their role is not fully understood. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate theperspectives of museum curators on the museums’ role in school-museum partnership in the field of social
studies.

Methods
To investigate the perceptions of that curators1 have of the museums’ role in the school-museum
partnership, we conducted a qualitative study of curators who had worked cooperatively with the schools. We
obtained responses from 23 museums and conducted semi-structured interviews with seven curators working inmuseums who agreed to participate in an additional survey, and conducted analyses using modified groundedtheory approach (M-GTA).
The M-GTA is a qualitative research method based on the grounded theory approach (GTA), which wasdeveloped by Glaser, Barney G. & Strauss, Anselm L. M-GTA reorganized the conventional GTA, which wascriticized for its objectivist nature in response to the expansion of qualitative research, and systematized andmodified the analysis process (Kinoshita, 2003; 2007; 2016). In recent years, research has grown in humanservice areas such as nursing and education. Specifically, M-GTA in educational research is now considered amethodology that can offer a broadly descriptive and predictive framework focusing on the commonalities andlaws of experience that occur among multiple cases (Sakai et al., 2012). M-GTA is a way to generate theories
that explain human interactions, especially “motion” (Kinoshita, 2003, p.67). The analysis procedure involves:
・ generating concepts based on interview data,
・ considering the relationship between concepts through continuous comparative analyses,
・ creating subcategories that have relationships with multiple similar concepts, and・ creating categories based on the relationship among them.
We considered it especially appropriate for this study because our interest was in the interactions withschools and communities that occur in the process of curators’ perceptions of museums’ role in school-museum
partnership. Furthermore, our knowledge of how curators think about school-museum partnership is still at sucha nascent stage that we could not hope to identify the role of the museum that they consider important at theirown level of experience. Thus, M-GTA seemed to be an appropriate way to examine the process by which
curators perceive concepts they consider important and the role of museums.
Study Participants
We conducted semi-structured interviews with seven curators from July to August 2021 (Table 1). In
these interviews, we used the responses to the questionnaire as a guide and included questions regarding schoolmuseum partnership at the participants’ museums. The interviews inquired about the cultural participation of65

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children and citizenship education, including the museums’ educational practices and their purpose, methods,
and content. In addition, the participants were presented with the new definition of museums proposed at the
Kyoto conference of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in 2019 and were asked to discuss theiropinions.
Each interview was conducted one-to-one with the researcher in a conference room in the museum andlasted approximately one hour. The interviews were recorded with the consent of the participants and transcribed.
This study was approved by the research ethics committee of Gifu University (approval #2020-224).
Table 1. Study participations
Location of the museum

Specialty

A

Toyota, Aichi

Social studies teacher (send out)

B

Toukai, Aichi

Archaeology

CToyohashi, Aichi

Archaeology

D

Takayama, Gifu

Art

E

Tajimi, Gifu

Exhibition

F

Tajimi, Gifu

Early modern history of JapanG

Minokamo, Gifu

Education administration

Table 2. Analysis worksheet (excerpt)
Concept
Definition

diverse values
Museums are not limited to common values, but embrace a variety of values. As
such, museum should be neutral while including certain values.

ExampleTheoretical notes- I do not know what to say. I think it is a valid argument to have keywords
such as -democratic-, -non-conflict- and -equality- centered on children.
However, I think that if a museum is limited to such things, it isuninteresting. (A)- Citizens centered on publicity are important. However, I think thatmuseum can educate citizens with more diverse values rather than justpublicity. (A)- Some values are the basis for collecting. Therefore, it is important for us
to encourage people who believe values are not important. (B)- Some people who come to museums have extremely radical ideas. We
want them to think neutrally. Some people question exhibits fromextreme perspectives, such as thinking that the exhibits are wrong. (C)1) Construe this script as the curators stance on values. How do curators thinkinteraction with society, such as schools and communities?
2) What role does this concept play in understanding cooperation between museums
and schools?

The Process of M-GTA Analysis
The M-GTA utilized an analysis worksheet for each concept to enable continuous comparative analyses,
including the generation and revision of concepts and comparison of definitions, to avoid one-sided interpretations

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(Table 2). Interview data related to school-museum relationship were interpreted and organized by definition.
We will use the concept of “diverse values” as shown in Table 2 as an example. In the analysis, we first
focus on a part of the interview data related to school-museum partnership, interpret its meaning and organize it
as a definition. For this concept, we focused on the following points.
- I do not know what to say. I think it is a valid argument to have keywords such as democratic, nonconflict, and equality centered on children. But, on the other hand, I always think that if a museum islimited to such things, it is uninteresting. (A)This also means that museums are spaces that are not limited to common values but embrace a varietyof values. Therefore, we named the concept “diverse values”, and the definition “museum is a place that is not
limited to common values, but embraces a variety of values. This also means that museums should be neutral
while including certain values.” In addition, in order to avoid one-sided interpretation in the analysis, we
promoted a continuous comparative analysis.
Continuous comparative analyses, based on the principle of “grounded on data”, require the analysis ofcounterparts and counterexamples in addition to comparisons between similar items (Kinoshita, 2007, p.9).
Concept validity can be presented by assuming counterexamples of data, checking for the existence of data, andwriting the results in theoretical notes on the worksheet. First, we focused on the following data as similar
examples of this concept.
- Values were used as the basis for the collection. Therefore, it is important for us to encourage people tosay that is not worth it. (B)- Some of the people who visit the museums have extremely radical ideas. We want them to thinkneutrally. So, there are people who ask questions about exhibits from an extreme point of view, such as“Isn’t it wrong?”. (C)Interview data were analyzed to reveal trends by identifying similarities. Following this, counterpart
comparisons were conducted. Concepts that were counter to already established concepts were created as newconcepts based on specific perspectives. Next, in this concept, we proceeded with the counterpart comparison
based on “How does the curator think about interaction with society, such as schools and communities?”.
Therefore we generated the concept “expectation of the community” by focusing on the following data.
- Well, we preserve the Japanese tradition. Of course, we must preserve the tradition, but I think weshould not pass it on to the next generations but also add something is of that our era. (E)Participant E indicated that their museum decided on the cultural property collection policy at therequest of the city. Participant E reconfirmed the value of the Japanese cultural properties, including that (they)wanted their children to inherit Japanese traditions, which is counter to the concept of “diverse values”.
As such, the validity of individual concepts was checked using the analysis worksheet. The analysis was
terminated when it reached “theoretical saturation” (Kinoshita, 2003, p.223), a state in which no new concepts
were generated and the data were logically coherent. The data were organized using the analysis worksheet.
Thus, we can focus on the commonalities and regularities of the curators when cooperating withschools, conducting an ongoing comparative analysis across multiple interview data sets. Through this process,we can develop assumptions about perceptions of the museum’s role that will be important in collaborating withcurators in social studies classes. The M-GTA methodology allows us to analyze the curatorial experience interms of commonalities and laws, and our analysis of the data allows us to understand how the curator interacts

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with the school/community. We found that the curators progressively understood the role of the museum in theirinteractions with the school and community. As described below, we identified 18 concepts, seven subcategories,
and five categories all organized through the above process.

Results
The M-GTA analysis generated 18 concepts, including seven subcategories, and five categories (Table 3). Figure
1 shows the results of the analysis, which examined the interrelationships among these categories.
The first step in recognizing the role of museums in school-museum partnership is to understand the{foundation} of the community in which the museum is located. Museums have always been connected to
specific local communities. Therefore, it seems that the relationship with the local community is inseparablefrom the curator’s perception of the museum’s role. In addition, this study uses historical museums, local
museums, memorial museums, and art galleries/general museums belonging to local communities as case
Table 3. Concepts
Concept
diverse values
culture as regionalism
standardized citizens

Definition
Museum are not limited to common values but embrace a variety of values.
As such, museum should be neutral while including certain values.
Museums exist for the benefit of the people in the community.

wonders of history

An exemplary image shared by society, which refers to people who examine
things in a public way and have an image of humanity that is consideredideal by society.
The standard material based on which curators select items for museum
collections.
Beliefs regarding society through reality, as represented by exhibits.In
particular, it is important for interpreting the value of things that do not haveobvious value.
A child’s perspective that should be maintained in the exploration of dailylife.
A way of life, such as one’s behavior and habits. It is a perspective fromwhich one compares oneself with others and indicates a reflective attitude.
When collecting materials at a museum, curators should select materials
without subjectivity to ensure fairness.
Perspectives that can be realized by learning new information about history.

critical thinking

A competency that is important in building one’s own opinion.

presenting beliefs

Measures that museums need to be neutral.

passing on to the next
generation
the power of the reality

To use the museum as a starting point to learn and communicate about ourown society.
The impression that comes from viewing the museum’s collection.

community expectation

Social demands on the museum from the local community.

standards for values
non-verbal beliefs
experiencing while being
flexible
culture as part of individuals
accepting the material as is

generalize local history

The role of the museum as an institution that organizes and conveys thehistory of the region.
bureaucratic sectionalism
Taking a limited perspective of the museum’s role and engaging only intasks within the scope of the work.
common experience at school A learning experience that is common to all children, independent of theirhome environment.
home environments
Children’s learning experiences as influenced by their parents.

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} : Category<“> : Subcategory” : Concepts: Direction{the role of museums}{relationship with schools}<educating for connecting><presenting methods>“standardized citizens”“passing on information to
the next generation”“experiencing while being flexible”“presenting beliefs”: Impact“common experience”“diverse values”{confronting collections}<noticing potential abilities><standing in perspective>“the power of reality”“critical thinking”<dealing with collections>“standards for values”“non-verbal beliefs”“Wonder of history”“accepting the material as is”{local community demands}{foundations}<being in the community>“culture as regionalism”“bureaucratic sectionalism”<approaching families>“home environments”“culture as part of individuals”“community expectations”“generalizing local history”

Figure 1. Analysis result
studies. On this basis, the category of {confronting collections} advances the work of the curators. In thiscategory, curators <noticing potential abilities> through activities such as collection and conservation of culturalproperties and understand the importance of the subcategory of <stand in perspectives> through exhibitions andeducational activities. Therefore, in our analysis, we focused on curatorial work in museums in addition tocollaboration with schools. Even for curators in charge of school collaboration, organizing, storing, andexhibiting collections is an important part of their work. We believe that this experience will lead to a better
understanding of the curator’s professionalism and the museum’s role in cooperating with schools and themuseum’s role in cooperating with schools. Curators learn <dealing with the collections> through their work as
curators. However, the category of {confronting collections}fluctuates and is affected by the two other categories
accordingly. and fluctuates. Local community demands require museums to be <being in the community> and<approaching families>. In the category of {relationships with schools}, curators examine the relative role ofmuseums in the process of cooperation with schools. Following this, curators become aware of {the role ofmuseums} through interaction with schools and local communities. Accordingly, we identified schools andcommunities as elements of the socio-cultural influences on the curator’s perception of {the role of museums}.
The curator perceives the needs of the community and, as a lifelong learning facility, devises exhibits thatprovide a variety of educational opportunities. The experience of the curator in working with children incollaboration with schools provides a new perspective to the curator and reconfigures {the role of museums} inexhibition activities.
Foundations
This is the basis of the category of {confronting collections} during curating work, which is a prerequisite forrecognizing the role of museums, and contains two concepts, “culture as regionalism” and “culture as part ofindividuals”. The concept of “culture as regionalism” determines the audience of a museum exhibition andexamines whether the museum is set up for the local community. In addition, the concept of “culture as part ofindividuals” describes the learning environment in museums, in which one creates oneself by reflecting on one’s

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own position in the past in a museum that deals with tools of daily life and traces of habitation.
The category of {foundations} is influenced by {local community demands}. For instance, Participant
A noted, “The mayor wants the museum to take care of the town and make things that foster a love for the town”.
Thus, {foundations} determine the subject of the museum and the position of the curator.
Confronting Collections
The category of {confronting collections} during curating work consists of three subcategories: <noticing
potential abilities>, <standing in perspective>, and <dealing with collections>.
The former consists of “the power of reality” and “non-verbal beliefs”. This category was formed basedon the responses of children who participated in educational practice while the curator preserved and exhibitedthe collection. “The power of the reality” confirms the value of the collections based on the children’s surpriseat seeing cultural properties that they had only seen in photographs in textbooks. “Non-verbal beliefs” illustrate
the museum’s significance for providing experiences that cannot be obtained from written materials.
The subcategory of <standing in perspective> consists of “critical thinking” and “wonder of history”.
This confirms the educational effects that curators can obtain from museum exhibitions through their educational
practices. “Critical thinking” encompasses the need for children in post-truth situations to acquire a variety ofviews on local subjects to construct their own opinions through the Internet. “Wonder of history” illustrates thatlearning new things about history can influence the community.
The subcategory of <dealing with collections> consists of “standards for values” and “accepting thematerial as is”, which addresses the conservation and exhibition of collections, which are at the heart of curatingwork. “Standards of values” addresses the decisions that curators make when preserving artifacts that are
generally judged to have no value. Participant B said, “Naturally, there are times when value judgements arewrong, and in such cases, the part being left behind and what is being conveyed needs to be scrutinized morethan ever”. This demonstrates the necessity for curators to be in a position to make judgements on a daily basis
and guarantee the value of exhibited collections. “Accepting the material as is” highlights the necessity ofconfronting collections while eliminating values when selecting items.
Local Community Demands
The category of {local community demands} influence curator’s work with collections, including the two
subcategories: <being in the community> and <approaching families>.
The former consists of “bureaucratic sectionalism” and “community expectations”. This concerns thesocial position of the museum in which the curator works and its relationship with the local community.
“Bureaucratic sectionalism” refers to curators perceiving the role of museums as limited in areas with strongsocial demands. Participant F stated, “Well, we have always been working from the perspective of culturalproperties and cultural heritage (F)”. This indicates that they specialized in the protection of cultural properties
as an administrative framework and were reluctant to consider other values and roles. “Community expectations”
indicate that the role of museums is defined to obtain administrative approval.
The subcategory of <approaching families> consists of “home environments” and “generalizing local
history” to confirm the impact that museums have on local citizens. “Home environments” indicate thatchildren’s learning opportunities are influenced by the interests of their parents, suggesting that directly
influencing families is challenging for museums. “Generalizing local history” addresses local community
demands for museums as social education facilities during generational division and municipal integration.

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Relationships with Schools
The category of {relationships with schools} includes two concepts: “standardized citizens” and “common
experience”. This category indicates the process by which curators relativize their own positions by coopertatingwith schools.
“Standardized citizens” describes the differences between the image of citizens assumed by schools andmuseums. Participant A stated that: “Citizen is an important keyword in school. In schools, we educate citizens
on publicity. On the other hand, museums are supposed to nurture a more diverse citizenry, though it would be
strange to call them maniacal”. This demonstrates that, while the image of citizenship in schools is oriented
toward democratic values and social justice, museums add a broader sense to it. “Common experience” requires
schools to utilize museums to provide learning experiences that are important for educating children.
The Role of Museums
The category of {the role of museums} contains two subcategories: <educating for connecting> and <presenting
methods>, which are the processes of becoming aware of curating work through cooperation with schools andrelationships with the local community.
Subcategory of <educating for connecting> consists of “passing on information to the next generation”
and “experiencing while being flexible”. This suggests that museums as educational facilities should educate thenext generation of children. “Passing on information to the next generation” addresses how children can learn
about their own society and pass it on, with the museum as the medium. “Experiencing while being flexible”
encompasses the necessity for curators to gain a variety of experiences from children through educational
practice. Participant B stated, “Children find things that we do not notice. I think that discovering something on
their own and feeling what was interesting on their own will be very important after you grow up”. This indicatesthat expanding children’s experience helps them understand society.
The subcategory of <presenting methods> consists of “diverse values” and “presenting beliefs”,
including the fact that museums can provide children with a new perspective through educational practices.
“Diverse values” indicates that museums are social spaces that embrace diverse values through educational
practices and exhibition activities. By presenting diverse values, museums aim to provide children with aperspective to analyze society. “Presenting beliefs” addresses the museum’s attitude toward values. Participant
D stated, “I think being an example is our role as a museum. We cannot say which one is right, can we?”. Thissuggests that museums should not disseminate specific values but only show them to visitors in the form of
examples.

Discussion and Conclusion
The overall aim of this research is to identify the process of recognizing the museum’s role in school-museum
partnership using M-GTA analysis. This study revealed 18 concepts with seven subcategories and five categories.
The relationship between the concepts and categories captured the process of the curator’s recognition of the roleof museums in school-museum partnership.
For the curators to understand the museums’ role in school-museum partnership, the museum’s
relationship with the local community is fundamental. The local community is both the object and the subject of
the exhibition. Curators examine the local community, confirm their roles and significance, and continuously

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update their perceptions. For curators, the presence of children is not only an object but also something thatchanges their perspectives on education and the community. Through educational programs at museums,
curators attempt to understand future communities from the perspectives of children. Thus, cooperation withschools encourages curators to examine themselves and the role of museums. In particular, the difference ineducational views between schools and museums was seen as an opportunity for curators to reconsider theeducational significance of museums.
The findings of this study suggest that curators consider museums to be social spaces. Throughinteractions with local communities and schools, curators can rethink the significance of museums. In thisinteraction, museums are not merely exhibitions or viewing spaces. Through responses from schools,
communities and interpretation, museums attempt to rethink their role. This is evident from the concept of“presenting beliefs”, including that society between people. Considering the museum as a social space issomething that has been proposed from the standpoint of museum education research. For example, Dierking(2014) stated that “Successful museums in the 21st century will be those who figure out how to develop longlasting, meaningful relationships with their public; that means thinking of those they serve as assemblages ofindividuals and not as some undefined, mass ‘public’“ (p. 211). Also, diverse engagement with the community
has enhanced the curator’s skills as a communicator as well as their self-awareness to act responsibly because“exhibiting will always be a contested terrain” (Longair, 2015). This view of the traditional museum as a social
space for civic participation is indicative of the current museum’s constant questioning of its relationship withthe local community.
Thus, curators confront collections based on foundations while coordinating their relationships withschools and considering local community demands. Through interactions with schools and the community,
curators become aware of the museum’s role as a social space2.
The results suggest that the curators should be considered creators. Curators are also researchers andinterpret the local community. However, the region and history that a museum exhibits are always a selection of
the past. It is also clear that historical events and social phenomena of interest to curators are the impetus for thecreation and presentation of exhibits. Social studies education can change the social space of the museum into aspace for critical dialogue space by considering the curator as a “creator”. This is because social studies classes
expose the power and violence hidden in exhibitions and create a society that continues to be renewed throughdialogue with the curators about its realities. In the course of the research, curators were seen to be responsive tothe needs of the community. This shows the potential for the museum to represent the local community in acertain (biased) way. This is why it is important for social studies classes to expose the “creator” aspect of
curators located in the fictional sanctuary of the museum and to involve children in the interactive social spaceof the exhibition. The case study in this research was a history museum located in a rural area among Japanesemuseums. Therefore, for museums that are constantly faced with the challenge in how to build relationships withlocal communities, the fact that social studies classes view curators as “creators” may help change the relationshipbetween schools and museums to one that is closer. Thus, if partnerships with curators in Japanese social studies
classes can be considered, it will be possible to view “History is not static but is fluid” (Stoddard, 2018) in a morecollaborative way.
When students recognize curators as “creators” in social studies classes, and when students involve
children in the interactive social space of the exhibition, it is possible to consider how related expression and

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perspective about history or exhibition can be connected to citizenship education. Partnership with curators insocial studies classes is not only a Japanese issue but also an international one. Examining the ideal form of suchpartnerships based on the socio-cultural context of the relationship between schools and museums in various
countries may provide an opportunity to consider public pedagogy in future social studies education research.

Notes
1. The role of museum curators is different in Japan and other countries such as Europe and the UnitedStates (European Group on Museum Statistics, 2004; Japanese Association of Museums, 2014). For
example, in public museums, curators are more focused on their ability to handle general administration
jobs such as finance, and in addition, they are required to have more communication skills with the local
community (Hamada, 2020). In the Japanese context, curators need to perform multiple aspects ofmuseum work sometimes as registrars, restorers, and educators. Therefore, the authorship of curators is
not often discussed, as in Bishop’s (2007) and Fowle’s (2007) discussion of the independent curator.
2. For example, Maley (2013) pointed out that concerns between teachers and curators are caused by theircommunication about museum visits. He suggests that revealed certain identifiable gaps in knowledge
and expectations between teachers and museum educators, which if effectively addressed, may help tobridge the gulfs in their mutual practice.

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