Dr. Jiao Ji | Visiting Scholar, Central South University, China
Friday, May 23, 2025 | 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (PST) | Via Zoom
* for Zoom details, please email edcp.educ@ubc.ca
View the Seminar Poster
Host | Dr. David Anderson
Abstract:
China boasts a civilization that spans thousands of years, rich with countless cultural heritages and artifacts. However, the concept of museums as institutions for the preservation, display, and research of artifacts was only introduced to China from Western countries in 1905. In other words, the use of museums to showcase Chinese history and culture is a development of merely a century. Specifically, the idea of effectively utilizing museum resources to support school education has emerged in the last 30 years. The development of museum education in China has been influenced by various sociocultural factors. For instance, deeply rooted traditional Chinese educational philosophies and the dissemination of Western educational ideas have intertwined with a high-pressure learning environment characterized by limited educational resources, reflecting the educational realities in China. All these factors have contributed to a unique state of museum education in China. In this seminar, I will share my thoughts on museum education in China from a personal and cultural perspective, focusing on policy analysis, empirical studies, and teaching reflections. This approach will help interpret the features, challenges, and trends in the development of museum education within a Chinese context.
Short Bio:
Jiao Ji is a visiting scholar in Museum Education at EDCP, supported by Global Affairs Canada /avec l’appui d’Affaires mondiales Canada. She is an alumna of EDCP, having graduated in 2015, and currently serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Ideological and Political Education at the School of Marxism, Central South University, Changsha, China. With 18 years of research experience in museum education and visitor studies, she also possesses 10 years of teaching experience that utilizes museum resources to enhance undergraduate students’ learning. Currently, she is a member of the academic committee for the Children’s Museum Education Research Center in China, an education expert for the Association of China Natural Museums, and a guest researcher at the Memorial Hall of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
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