"Who's ready for the cave?" Thailand's Tham Luang Rescue Museum as teaching case study

Burch, S ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8293-1850, Chen, D, Fu, J, Guan, Z, Qi, Y, Tang, S, Tian, Y and Xie, S, 2019. "Who's ready for the cave?" Thailand's Tham Luang Rescue Museum as teaching case study. Journal of Museum Education, 44 (3), pp. 286-297. ISSN 1059-8650

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Abstract

This article demonstrates how a teaching case study approach can benefit museum studies courses. It takes as its focus the widely reported rescue of a boys’ football team from a flooded cave in Thailand (2018). The success of this multinational effort led to immediate calls for the establishment of a “living museum” dedicated to remembering what became known as the “Tham Luang cave rescue.” Discussion of the potential form and function of this envisaged museum plus its wider ramifications formed a key component of a newly validated international MA program taught in the UK and China by local academics and practitioners. Issues addressed include collections management, interpretation and display as well as ethical considerations relating to funding and forward planning. These were debated through groupwork, student presentations and report writing. The article reflects on this experience and the lessons it has for studying museums. It advocates the use of other topical events as the basis for similar teaching case studies on the grounds that this best equips students with the knowledge and skills required in the workplace.

Item Type: Journal article
Publication Title: Journal of Museum Education
Creators: Burch, S., Chen, D., Fu, J., Guan, Z., Qi, Y., Tang, S., Tian, Y. and Xie, S.
Publisher: Left Coast Press
Date: 2019
Volume: 44
Number: 3
ISSN: 1059-8650
Identifiers:
Number
Type
10.1080/10598650.2019.1606581
DOI
Divisions: Schools > School of Arts and Humanities
Record created by: Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added: 15 Apr 2019 12:14
Last Modified: 25 Jul 2021 03:00
URI: https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/36255

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