| Abstract [eng] |
There is a growing trend in the changing role of museums within society. Museums are increasingly responding to the needs of society by offering a range of entertaining and educational activities for their visitors. Museums are no longer places for storing artifacts but are becoming spaces for entertainment, recreation, and education. Museum educators are responsible for the implementation of educational activities in museums. Using a variety of teaching methods, educators are responsible for actively engaging visitors and creating experiences and knowledge in the museum environment. Educators design and deliver educational activities for visitors of all ages and needs. However, the academic literature gives minimal attention to museum educators. It highlights the lack of research, both at the international and national level, which reflects the activities of museum educators and the competences required for these activities. In order to study museum educators and their competences in more detail, the problem of this paper is: What competences should museum educators have? The main aim of this study is to construct a model of the competences of museum educators in Lithuania using the constructivist grounded theory developed by Kathy Charmaz. A qualitative study was carried out following the constructivist grounded theory research methodology. The study participants were museum educators and educator managers from three cities in Lithuania: Vilnius, Kaunas, and Šiauliai. During the interviews, the work of museum educators was characterized by aspects related to the creation of museum education and the education of museum visitors. Meanwhile, based on the data on the meanings created by the interviewees about the competences needed by museum educators, a model of educators' competences was constructed. The model comprises six competences: creativity, communication, subject matter, pedagogical, emotional, and digital. This study reveals important data about the work of museum educators regarding education, museum representation, and creative processes. It contributes to the missing literature on museum educators' activities and competences. Meanwhile, the constructed model of competences can be applied in practice in the work of museum educators or further research on this topic. |
