Teacher Training at the Oriental Museum 2

On Monday May 22nd Floris and Oliver drove down in the summer weather to run the second of our teacher training days at the Oriental Museum in Durham.  These training days are part of our continued collaboration with the University’s Library and Collections Learning and Engagement team. Like last time, we met with Ross Wilkinson, the ULC’s learning and engagement manager, and were able to catch-up before meeting the trainee teachers.

This time the group was made up of more than 50 Durham University School for Education’s First Year BA students. The session was aimed at engaging with museum collections and teaching primary-school-aged children the importance of questions around migration, cultural diversity, and inclusion via material culture and object-centred learning.

In the morning Floris and Oliver ran two consecutive sessions aimed at exploring the museum whilst learning how to engage students about languages and chronologies. At the same time, Ross led the hands-on sessions in which the students were able to handle various items such as Qing-era Imperial robes and a tea brick. It was great seeing how eager the students were to engage with the activities and many responded afterwards that it had given them good ideas on how to integrate these types of activities into their future teaching!

After everyone was able to enjoy the wonderful weather during lunch we once again split them into two groups. This time Ross talked the students through the importance of including museums into lower-school teaching and taught them all about the on-the-ground administrative necessities of organizing a fieldtrip. At the same time, Floris and Oliver led two sessions on how to engage more closely with the collection, and how to create a themed approach to museum centred learning, this time designed around the importance of migration and cross-cultural interactions. The students all came up with great ways on how to engage their future pupils on issues of material heritage. Many said they were excited to incorporate museum visits in their future teaching and that the day had given them much more confidence in engaging with the collections.

The day was a great success and was unique experience to engage with the wonderful collections at the Oriental Museum, especially because we had the museum all to ourselves as it was closed to the public in preparation for the new exhibition “Remembering Nagasaki and Hiroshima,” which opens on the 7th of June 2023.

Both sessions were a huge success and we are very excited to continue our cooperation with the wonderful team at the Durham Oriental Museum and develop these sessions into lasting links in the future!