The Educational Role of Ethnographic Museums and Challenges

Museum education in relation to ethnographic museums got less attention globally and is similar in the Ethiopian context. The role of ethnographic museums in spreading ethnographic knowledge in multi-ethnic Ethiopia has never been studied. The educational role of the ethnographic museums is taken as a leading constituent in the focus of this study. The study findings revealed that guides, visitors and museum programs have a strong influence in all the studied ethnographic museums’ education activity though there are differences between these museums. This book asserts that visitors would prefer to meet guides and follow their presentations. The study also offers a view that due to lack of awareness in the importance of museum visit,there exists a weak relation between visitors and the museum. In other words,the bigger proportions of our community still do not consider museums as place worth to visit.Though museum programs are one of the major vectors to transmit ethnographic knowledge,the study identified that it is a single handed activity that is dependent on exhibitions and yet ignoring the outreach activities which supplements the core service that the museum provides.