Deaf Museums: The Development of Open Educational Resources to train Deaf sign language users in Museum and eneral entrepreneurial skills.
Erasmus+ project number 2020-1-IT02-KA204-079582
Starting date: 1 October 2020
Duration: 30 months
Official Summary
In the EU member states, approximately 750.000 people are deaf from an early age and use a sign language as their preferred language. Deaf people not only have their ownIn the EU member states, approximately 750.000 people are deaf from an early age and use a sign language as their preferred language. Deaf people not only have their ownlanguage, but also their own culture: Deaf Culture.
The education of deaf children has a long -, and controversial - history going back centuries. Today, most hearing people do knowabout sign language, but they may know little or nothing about Deaf Culture, Deaf Education. Deaf Clubs, for centuries the centres of Deaf Culture, are disappearing quickly or have vanished already. Most deaf children are now mainstreamed. As a result, the heritage of Deaf people is at risk.
In the Deaf Museums project, we will develop Open Educational Resources (OER), including an online training course in museum and general entrepreneurial skills for and by Deaf sign language users, to promote, preserve and share the Deaf Heritage.
The Deaf Museums project has 2 long term goals:
1. To promote, preserve and share the Deaf Heritage and by doing so: to promote Deaf awareness in the widest sense possible.
2. To improve the employability of Deaf sign language users and the success of Deaf entrepreneurs by providing them with the necessary mindset and skills. In so doing, it will support the Erasmus+ goals for the participants in Strategic Partnerships: increased capacity and professionalism to work at EU/international level: improved management competences and internationalisation strategies; reinforced cooperation with partners from other countries and other cultures.
Short term objectives of the project are:
1. To develop online Open Educational Resources including a training course in basic Museum skills, for and by Deaf sign language users. The course will include examples, guidelines, signed stories and case studies, all produced and/or tested by the participants in the project. Included will be topics that state of the art mainstream museums areaddressing: “Who are museums for and why are they working to engage new audiences? How do visitors respond emotionally to museum objects and spaces? And how can museumsplay a role in the pursuit of social justice, human rights, or health and well being?” (https://www.culturepartnership.eu/en/article/5-free-online-courses-for-museum-workers). Special attention will be given to the use of social media and ICT tools. All information will be in International Sign, written English, and as many of the partners’ signed and written languages as possible.as possible.
2. To output case studies and good examples of museum exhibitions (e.g. about Deaf Culture, Deaf Art, Deaf people during WWII, Deaf migrants, Deaf in the European Union), produced by the participants in the project. The case studies and exhibitions will be used as examples in the training course and to promote the project and disseminate its results both during and after the project's lifetime.
3. To research the state of the art in this field through surveys and interviews, to use the results to set up a platform for the promotion of real and virtual Deaf museums and DeafHeritage initiatives, nationally, across Europe and globally, and to promote and support transnational collaboration in this field.
Methodology and participating organisations:
The participating organisations represent a diverse mix of organisations from different fields of education, training, and other socio-economic sectors, including institutes of highereducation, NGO's and SME's, from 7 European countries. In the consortium, participants from 'the Deaf world' and from the 'mainstream Museum world' will work together to produce high quality results and output by sharing and comparing each other's expertise.
Our methodology will be based on peer-learning and challenge-based learning. Partners as well as several invited experts will share their expertise in specific fields. Partners will be asked to find solutions for the challenges that Museums in general, and Deaf Museums in particular have to deal with. They will learn practical entrepreneurial skills by planning, producing, promoting and evaluating the exhibitions that they will develop during the project.
At each consortium meeting, they will be interviewed about the work they have done andabout lessons learned. These interviews will be included in the OER and will be used to disseminate information about the project, both during and after the project's lifetime.
Impact and potential longer term benefits:
Interest in the Deaf Heritage and Deaf Culture and how to preserve and share these has been growing rapidly in recent years. Therefore, we expect the project to have a major impact on Deaf people and Deaf Organisations in general, and on Deaf Museums and similar initiatives in particular. We also expect the project to have impact on mainstream Museump rofessionals.
Long term benefits:
Bridging gaps between generations of Deaf people, between Deaf and hearing people, and between Deaf and mainstream Museum professionals.