NODEM 2014 Proceedings

The Rotterdam Heritage Coalition: Cooperation between Heritage Institutions
So although the communication strategies the RHC employed to make the initial contact with primary schools
were not successful, the RHC did not find a better strategy to convince schools to participate in the project.
The second step in the collaboration with these schools was a personal visit from the project manager and
educator: personal contact. These conversations with the teacher that was responsible for cultural education
at a given school took place at the schools.
These conversations had two goals: establishing a personal working relationship between a particular teacher,
the project manager and the educator; and starting the dialogue with the schools as part of the dialogue
driven approach to develop heritage education. This personal contact turned out to be crucial. The teachers
were grateful for the personal time they got, and it was pivotal for them to relate to the project on a pedagogical
level, in relation to their teaching tasks. In other words: the project did not live for teachers until they had
a live conversation with the RHC. More specifically: heritage did not live for teachers until they had a chance
to discuss all the pedagogical possibilities of heritage education with the educator and the project manager. It
also gave the RHC a chance to find out what teachers expected from heritage education and on which subjects
or methods to focus on, in their first development efforts.
In other words: it is our strong conviction that when heritage institutions want to collaborate with primary
schools, they should have personal contact with teachers. It is important that there is a working relationship
and shared vision on the executive level, more so than on the management level. This prevents heritage institutions
from developing products that are not purchased or used by teachers.
Sustaining external cooperation
The third step is consolidating the contact with the schools and teachers. The RHC is still working on this third
step as this paper is written. The RHC employs four strategies to do this: agreements with schools, heritage
scans, the website and personal contact. First of all, a formal agreement had to be reached between the RHC
and the participating schools. More specifically, the following had to be established: the hours the RHC expects
the schools to put in and what the school can expect in return in terms of services.
Secondly, the KCR will offer the schools a so called heritage scan. This scan can be seen as small scale qualitative
research into the current status of heritage education at the school. All teachers and staff will be interviewed
and the KCR will offer the school a report on the current status of heritage education and the possibilities in the
near future for heritage education at their school. This way, both the schools and the RHC have a baseline from
which to work. At the midterm and end evaluation, it can serve as a point of comparison.
Thirdly, the RHC will use the website to enable direct communication between all parties involved. As mentioned
in the first part of this paper, the website is built to be a forum to exchange information and comment
directly on the developed material. The website offers the teachers lessons and the ability to give immediate
feedback once they tested the material. Teachers will have the option to request lessons as well.
Lastly, the RHC will employ its most successful strategy: personal contact with schools. Of course, the RHC will
have digital contact with the schools through the website for the sake of efficiency, but as personal contact has
turned out to be crucial, the RHC will continue investing personal time. For example, each school can expect a
presentation for its team from the RHC. This can be in the form of a short seminar or training. The schools can
request certain information or methods. The function of this presentation is twofold: the RHC gets to make
direct contact with the entire team of a school, and the teachers get a feeling for what the RHC and heritage
education has to offer. In light of the success of the personal visits from the project manager and the educator
in the earliest stage, we consider this strategy the most important way to ensure collaboration between the
RHC and the schools.
NODEM 2014 Conference & Expo
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