Global Perspectives on Art Museums as Third Spaces for Inquiry-Based Support in Core Curriculum

Abstract

This chapter presents a global perspective on the role art museums as a Third Space in the teaching/learning process, in addition to the first and second spaces of home and the traditional classroom. After a theoretical explanation of Third Space, the chapter introduces the concept of art museum settings as third spaces for inquiry-based core curriculum teaching/learning, including a review of the literature on the historical and contemporary understanding of art museums as a Third Space. Next follows a discussion of how art museums in various countries are offering a wide spectrum of teaching-learning experiences that would otherwise be inaccessible in the second space of the traditional classroom settings, and thereby have transitioned from being a pedagogy of only geographical out-of-classroom space to a pedagogy of a true educational Third Space. The chapter concludes with an argument for the importance of using art museums as Third Space for teaching core curriculum, with an emphasis on the future acceptance of Third Space into traditional teaching-learning pedagogy.