MusLi (Museums Literacy) - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

Methodology
MusLi - No qualifications needed: museums and new audiences
According to the statement presented in the Introduction, the Museums Literacy project did not set out
to produce a theoretical framework for establishing a direct link between low educational attainment or
cultural capital and lack of engagement with museums, nor did it aim to pinpoint a range of reasons,
needs, barriers, aptitudes and behaviours that could be ascribed to people with a ‘low schooling level’
and considering them as a homogeneous target group, which is not the case. Far from identifying specific
target audiences, ‘low schooling level’ is instead a feature shared by many different groups and
it should be considered, from the perspective of a good and satisfactory museum experience, as one
factor of disadvantage amongst others.
The project focused therefore on the good or bad practices through which a museum may, or may
not, be successful in involving in its offer audiences with a ‘low schooling level’, overcoming – totally
or partially – the difficulties, mistrust and resistance (sometimes internal to the museum structure!) that
most of the time keeps these people outside its walls.
Partners were requested to find interesting case studies of initiatives, projects and operational methods
in their own areas that may throw a light upon the factors of success – or failure –of experiences aiming
to involve target audiences with a cultural disadvantage connected to ‘low schooling level’ in the
museum offer.
The work followed these steps:
1. Definition of the ‘low schooling level’
After comparing the different school systems in their four countries, in the first moment the
partners decided to consider the age of 16 as a boundary, since the EU considers this as the
limit of compulsory education. The reference level had therefore to do with the age and not with
qualifications; this allowed the partners to compare the very different schooling systems adopted
across the EU and, moreover, it confirmed the decision taken in many research projects to consider
qualifications gained at the age of 18 – 19 as a “high” level of education.
It must be admitted, though, that in the project’s course it was not easy to respect the age
boundary while analysing practical cases and situations: in two case studies (“Motorway from
a mole’s view“ and the Manchester Museum) it was not possible to collect reliable data on the
visitors’ schooling level, while in other cases also the vocational qualifications were considered
depending on the local interest in this datum. Finally, the partners agreed to return back to a
more flexible and adaptable definition of “low schooling level”, reflecting contextual constraints
and different habits in collecting and analysing data.
2. List of expected information outcomes from the analysis of the selected case studies
A challenge faced in the choice of case studies to be illustrated within the project was the lack
of homogeneity of the material at our disposal.
Museums Literacy in fact was not a research project developing a homogeneous set of experi-
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