Museum objects as mediators for the sociocultural competence

Abstract

Yulia A. Shapurma[1], Victoria V. Levchenko[2]

In this article we examine the educational ability of museum objects like a form of information repositories and their input to the sociocultural competence development. Nowadays the interest in Museums and Museum pedagogy is high enough. Museum education considered to be, one of the most progressive direction of the modern educational system. It’s necessary to notice that the transmission of knowledge, of people’s experience that they’ve collected through the ages through the museums’ collections is valuable and certain. That is because the education and the museum both are social institutions, which play important role in the system of spiritual values.

[1] Yulia A. Shapurma (iouliasa@gmail.com ) 1^st postgraduate student of Samara National Research University,  443011, 1 Academic Pavlov Str., Samara, Russia

[2] Victoria V. Levchenko (levchenko_v2004@mail.ru) scientific advisor, Head of the department of “Foreign languages and Professional communication” Doctor of Pedagogy, Professor

443011, 1 Academic Pavlov Str., Samara, Russia

Full Text

Museum objects as mediators

Museums are more and more, presented in modern pedagogy as an informal educational space and their great value and input is defiantly obvious. All museums perform and implement different educational programs for all kinds of social groups of people and all ages. It’s enough common and effective educational and social practice nowadays. Both institutions are closely connected: on the one hand, education is an important instrument for the transmission of key and fundamental knowledge, senses and experience, on the other hand – museum is a form of collection, storage, studying, interpretation and presentation of humanity’s values. Both are the result of sociocultural requirement of the society. [3] The present article is based on the scientific survey under the title “Development of the sociocultural competence of students-future diplomats in the space of University museum”.

As for the main direction of the above mentioned scientific research, as the first step was chosen the following: to analyze different interpretations and definitions of the terms “sociocultural competence” and “sociocultural space”. Secondly, we decided to study information about museum objects as carriers of information and mediators. And finally, using the bibliographical sources and practical implement of the model of S. Pearce for studying objects, to find out how their (re)interpretation contributes to intercultural communication in multicultural societies.

Sociocultural competence is widely discussed topic nowadays in a field of high professional education. Development of such kind of competence is an essential skill for the successful multicultural communication and especially for students who are going to become effective professional and skilled diplomats.

According to the bibliographical sources, examined during the first step of our scientific research, we can resume that the sociocultural competence is an ability to use and implement the following kinds of knowledge: the main and general information about the foreign country and its native citizens, their customs and traditions, their language and etiquette, rules and stereotypes of their behavior, special features of their national way of thinking etc. [4] Some scientists insist that sociocultural competence may also include some competencies like social competency, cultural competency, multicultural communication as a component of communicational competency, interpretational competency and knowledge of national and cultural specific features of social and linguistic behavior. [1, 3] To sum up sociocultural competence is person’s integrative characteristics as willingness to the communication with people. As subdivisions of the sociocultural competence can be considered the following competencies: informative, motivational, operational, communicative, reflexive, social, cultural, interpretational. [2]

As for the sociocultural space, it can be considered a space of the cultural development of human, including values, relationships, symbols, things and objects. University museum can become such kind of sociocultural space through the object-based studies, because the potentialities of their heritage are twofold. The audience in such museums can be presented by university students, local communities, other social groups of citizens and tourists.   

In the framework of our research, we studied the article about the case study of implement of the Susan Pearce’s model for studying objects. As a result, it should be mentioned, that this model is a kind of a mnemonic device for the interpretation of the museum objects and can become a new perception of the range of philosophical and technical concepts that shape the interpretation of the material culture. Because the museum objects are made and used by ordinary people, they contain different stories and reflections. The life of museum objects is much longer than their owner’s or their creator’s lives. That’s why objects are perfect and important documents, that can shed light on different “aspects of these people’s life, personality, strengths and weaknesses, on their thoughts, on their perceptions, on what they consider valuable and important, on how they shape their world.” [5;21]

Summing up, museum objects become mediators for the transmission of the information and we suppose that they may be used in the development of sociocultural competence of future diplomats, because objects contain such information like value for the nation, reflection of historical events and main historical points, personal attitude to the object and private life. They reflect the spiritual and material value, financial relations, scientific achievements and technological developments. They carry inside them the significance for the society; objects can be closely connected to the customs and traditions or even special features of ideology and worldview. [5]

That’s why, we think, the development of the sociocultural competence through the very museum objects will help our students – future diplomats – to find their own algorithm, analyzing the objects in the foreign cultural space, to reach great diplomatic skills in cross-cultural communication, to avoid misunderstanding and to negotiate successfully, respecting other cultures and their heritage. 

As we have already mention the potentialities and input of university museums in such cases are really great: they can be oriented towards the general public or can focus on audiences inside universities. Audience is here understood in a broad sense, including people who may use university heritage for research and teaching.

So, object - based teaching can develop not only the critical thinking of future diplomats specialists, but also the development of sociocultural competence as their readiness for interethnic and intercultural communication with such aspects like personality of specialist with qualities of empathy and congruence, demonstration of tolerance in his professional activities and multicultural communication.