Museums Foster Lifelong Learning, Connection, and Dialogue

Museums play a vital role beyond preserving history, they serve as inclusive spaces for lifelong learning, encouraging curiosity, critical thinking, and cultural exploration for people of all ages. Through interactive exhibits, community programs, and educational initiatives, museums help bridge generational and cultural gaps, fostering connection and meaningful dialogue. They provide opportunities for continuous personal growth and shared understanding, positioning themselves as essential institutions in promoting learning, empathy, and social cohesion in an ever-changing world.

Hironobu Shindo, affiliated with The University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Education, shares reflections from his experience exploring nearly 100 museums across Europe while serving as a visiting researcher at the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL). His insights highlight the transformative role museums can play in promoting citizenship and lifelong education.

As a Japanese scholar focusing on lifelong learning and museum studies, he spent the 2024–2025 academic year in Hamburg, Germany, his first extended stay abroad. The city’s welcoming and historically open nature, influenced by its port-city background, created a rich environment for both academic and cultural immersion.

His research investigated how museum engagement and lifelong learning initiatives can contribute to building more democratic, participatory societies. For him, cultural activities like visiting museums are a vital part of continued personal and civic development.

In Japan, although UNESCO’s concepts of lifelong learning were embraced early, they became largely shaped by the country’s rapid economic expansion, emphasizing leisure and market-driven pursuits. As a result, lifelong learning is often perceived more as entertainment than a critical social function. This has led to minimal public investment compared to formal education, limited youth participation due to busy lifestyles, and a reduced focus on social or political content.

What drew him to UIL was its ongoing dedication to ideals like democracy and human rights. Reading Maren Elfert’s work on UNESCO’s educational history inspired him to revisit the foundational values of lifelong learning and integrate them more intentionally into current practices.

One pressing issue in Japan is the lack of room for political dialogue in public educational forums, including museums. Efforts to present politically sensitive content often provoke strong opposition. He recalls the 2019 controversy at the Aichi Triennale, where an exhibit featuring a statue of a ‘comfort woman’ sparked online outrage, ultimately leading to its removal. This reflects a broader discomfort with public political discourse, which undermines democratic engagement. Simultaneously, Japan faces challenges such as declining voter participation and the spread of misinformation online, making effective citizenship education even more crucial.

Germany, shaped by its historical context, prioritizes political education more prominently. Shindo aimed to understand how this is woven into the country’s museum and educational landscapes. His research at UIL included literature reviews and museum visits across Germany and other European nations.

One key takeaway came from UIL’s Making Lifelong Learning a Reality: A Handbook, which argues that lifelong learning should activate civic participation rather than remain an abstract ideal. It emphasizes the vital contributions of cultural institutions in fostering such engagement, aligning closely with his vision of integrating lifelong learning with active citizenship.

He also encountered the concept of Bildung, a German term for self-development through cultural and intellectual exploration. During a conference in Sweden on the future of Bildung in the Nordic region, he discovered that interpretations of this philosophy vary by country. Professor Christoph Wulf from the Free University of Berlin described it as a process of renewal influenced by introspection and cultural interaction, an idea deeply resonant with museum-based learning.

Throughout his time in Europe, Shindo explored around 100 museums across 20 cities. This journey reinforced his belief that museums should serve as interactive spaces that promote connection and conversation, rather than simply showcasing objects.

One memorable experience was at Hamburg’s BallinStadt museum, where an exhibit depicting the fall of the Berlin Wall used Playmobil figures to make historical narratives accessible and emotionally engaging, especially for younger audiences. Similarly, museums in Bremerhaven and Paris invited visitors to reflect on migration through critical questions and spaces for dialogue.

At the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, an exhibit went beyond the events of World War II to explore post-war right-wing extremism, demonstrating how museums can address difficult historical themes in ways that provoke thought and encourage civic awareness.

While some institutions lacked strong ties to local communities, the MARKK museum in Hamburg stood out. There, he joined a community cooking event that exemplified how museums can foster interaction and belonging. These kinds of initiatives underscored the potential of museums to connect the past with the present, facilitate interaction among people and ideas, and contribute meaningfully to broader public discussions.

Shindo concludes that for museums, and lifelong learning in general, to fulfill their democratic potential, they must be recognized as dynamic spaces for civic engagement. As education becomes more commodified and individualized in today’s digital world, museums should remain places where open and critical conversations about society are both encouraged and nurtured.

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Source: unesco‍