Young People’s Perceptions of World Cultural Heritage: Suggestions for a Critical and Reflexive World Heritage Education

authored by

Verena Röll, Christiane Meyer

Abstract

The paper analyses and discusses the perspectives of young people on World Cultural Heritage (WCH), focusing on their presumed reasons of its imbalanced global distribution. The qualitative study is based upon focus groups conducted with 43 secondary school students aged 14–17 years from Lower Saxony, Germany. The findings reveal Eurocentric thinking patterns. Furthermore, a site visit took place after the focus groups exploring the universal and personal values the participants attach to the WCH using hermeneutic photography. Due to these results and building upon an education for sustainable development that empowers learners to become sustainability citizens, the authors provide suggestions for a critical and reflexive World (Cultural) Heritage education.

Organisation(s)

Geography Education Section

Type

Article

Journal

Sustainability

Volume

12

Pages

1-18

No. of pages

18

ISSN

2071-1050

Publication date

19.10.2020

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geography, Planning and Development, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.3390/su12208640 (Access: Open)