Education Commons^™

“Making It Click”: Assigning Value And Confronting Obstacles In An Educational Exhibit, Andrea Thomalla Cavedo

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the development of Choosing to Participate, an educational exhibit presented by Facing History and Ourselves, and teachers’ experiences visiting the exhibit on field trips with students. Presented as an exhibit about “what it means to be a citizen in a democratic society,” teachers found multiple sites of value within the exhibit, but resisted the notion that it was meant to educate visitors about democracy or citizenship. Their descriptions revealed several essential characteristics of processing an educational exhibit, namely constant evaluation in order to inform adaptation for the classroom; as well as key obstacles to fostering …