Heritage education, society and museum professional development. A preliminary study - Educazione al patrimonio, società e sviluppo professionale nei musei. Uno studio preliminare

Recent research provides evidence regarding the potential social and economic impact if cultural heritage experience is enhanced. In the pre-pandemic era, various sources had already highlighted how tourism and cultural sectors had revamped Italian economic growth, in particular. The enlargement of the audience highlighted new and more diversified educational needs. Notwithstanding this evolution, museum staff have increasingly been excluded from consistent pedagogical professional training. This contribution proposes an analysis of the self perceptions of a group of participants in two international post-graduate courses in “Museum Education" and “Advanced Studies in Museum Education”, promoted jointly by two Italian universities in partnership with various public and private sector bodies. The data collected are analyzed to understand whether a proposal like the one described can respond, albeit partially, to those unmet educational needs, to the lack of investment and innovation and the increase in social exclusion due to low educational levels, which have been worsened by unfortunate recent events, as recommended by the European recovery fund.