In this article, we position museums as 'pedagogic contact zones,' sites fraught with both problems and potential. Using five stories drawn from our work and engagement with public museums over the past five years in Canada, England and Scotland, we illustrate how contemporary practices of critical cultural pedagogy work to construct, deconstruct,…

The incorporation of cultural productions and virtual experiences in museum spaces adds to the objects' significance and also turns them into important contributions to adult education. Yet, how far do they trouble, decolonise, revisualise, tell alternative stories, interrogate intolerance and privilege or stimulate critical literacies? This…

Museums in the United States have historical significance, which adult educators are beginning to study. Receiving less attention to date, however, is the work of African American history museums. This descriptive case study sought to gain an understanding of the adult education work in one African American history museum--The Calaboose: The…

This article introduces the exhibit called "Out from Under: Disability, History and Things to Remember" and positions it as a focal point for exploring questions of disability, museum exhibition and adult education. Created by the School of Disability Studies at Ryerson University in Toronto, "Out from Under" was the first…

In this article, we develop a framework that demonstrates how older adults need to develop diverse capabilities in relation to their educational life course through engagements in Nordic museums, archives and street art activities. We discuss how European museums have taken up UNESCO's approach to lifelong learning as a way to conceptualise…

In this article, we present an illustrative case of public pedagogy in an Icelandic museum. The museum utilised social movement learning to present the recent event and responses to the financial collapse in Iceland beginning in 2008. We illustrate how a small regional museum disrupted cultural and institutional norms to challenge visitors, local…

Canada, like other settler nations such as Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, faces considerable challenges in repairing and transforming relationships with Indigenous peoples. The country's reconciliation efforts need to overcome a general failure among non-Indigenous Canadians to acknowledge and understand colonialism and to…