Cultural education brings together different approaches around creative and interdisciplinary thinking.
Each individual is required to have 21st century skills, namely problem solving, communication, collaboration, teamwork, critical thinking, creative thinking and the use of information technology.
Adapting to the ever-changing technological, social, political and economic environment is also an objective of cultural education. It meets the most pressing needs, promoting the importance of creativity and culture, education in all disciplines, creating parity between the sciences and the humanities.
Interdisciplinary learning helps us to learn creatively and use knowledge across different fields, solve complex problems, interpret and improve communication, visual skills, critical thinking and empathy. It is these processes that enhance interest and engagement, as well as the ability to make connections and facilitate knowledge transfer.
Cultural education is a lifelong, continuous process, from early years to old age. Although cultural education is generally perceived in relation to arts and heritage, it covers a multitude of areas.
Cultural education encompasses a wide range of experiences that require different activities and interventions. Compared to traditional approaches, an interdisciplinary approach allows learning to take place through the discussion of topics that do not fit into a single discipline. This way of assimilation requires multiple perspectives.
Increased sensitivity to cultural diversity is generally recognised as an explicit or implicit part of cultural education. Cultural diversity has dimensions both within and between cultures. The interdisciplinary nature of cultural diversity is thus emphasised.
Each of us comes with a baggage of pre-existing ideas and prejudices. Cultural education broadens horizons, increasing openness to multiculturalism and innovative concepts.
Among the benefits of interdisciplinary learning is therefore this broadening of perspectives. Accustomed to having knowledge delivered to us, this interdisciplinary model changes the dynamic, placing us in a much more active role as learning takes on a broad and relevant context.
Cultural education through its interdisciplinarity makes learners more active in their community, giving them the opportunity to make their own voice heard. By focusing on real issues and looking at them from several angles, the perfect set-up is created for those involved to connect with members of the community and the organisations concerned.
Cultural education seen in an interdisciplinary way is designed to engage beneficiaries, educators and their community partners in meaningful learning experiences.
An example of the importance of interdisciplinarity to the relationship between school and museum can be found in the volume resulting from the collaborative project funded through the Socrates Comenius programme, coordinated by the University of East Anglia Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, titled “ The Teacher, the School and the Museum: A Professional Development Course Book for Teachers Using Art Museums”, (2003), editors: Veronica Sekules, Maria Xanthoudaki. The volume is presented here.