1. The role of the youth in
cultural heritage -
supporting engagement
and participation
Ira Vihreälehto
Executive director
Association of Cultural Heritage
Education In Finland

2. • Working nationwide
• In cooperation with culture,
education, youth,
environment, and
sustainable policy sectors
• Developing methods and
tools for cultural heritage
education
• Supporting the role of
children and young people
in defining cultural heritage
and their active agency in
the society and culture
• Located in Helsinki at the
House of Nobility

3. Cultural Participation
• Participation in cultural activities is
a human right. QUESTION: Why
does one child participate while
another does not?
• STUDY: A child experiences fewer
barriers to and more positive
feelings about museums the
higher the socio-economic status
of the family (af Ursin, 2016)
• GOAL: Ensure that all the children
and youth of the region get equal
chances to experience culture?

4. Cultural education plan
• www. kulttuurikasvatussuunnitelma.fi is a tool for
providing cultural, art and cultural heritage
education in municipalities as part of the standard
curricula
• Cultural education is integrated into different
subjects, thus ensuring that the pupils are given
an equal opportunity to participate in and learn
about art and culture.
• Example: The City of Rauma includes World
Heritage education in its municipal cultural
education plan. Third graders will be taken on
guided field trips to Old Rauma and fifth graders
to Sammallahdenmäki.

5. The winner of the 2018 EU Prize for
Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra
Award
The Grand Prix laureate:
Category Education, Training and
Awareness-Raising
▪ Culture Leap: Educational
Programme, FINLAND

6. In your
municipality…
• Do children have equal and fair access
to cultural services?
• What is the minimum that a child should
learn or experience about cultural
heritage?
• Who pays the tickets or cost of
transportation?
• What will children learn when they are
involved?
• Who does the planning?
• Are you involved?

7. Cultural Heritage Education &
Sustainable skills
• Supporting ones’s own cultural
identity
• Noticing local culture and heritage
• Understanding broader global
community

8. • Cultural literacy: reading the
cultural messages and values of
the environment
• Participation and influence skills:
ability to take the responsibility
for cultural heritage and its
transformation
• Cultural diversity skills:
Understanding the specificities of
cultures, dialogue and
cooperation

9. Every child has a right to experience
culture and to visit cultural sights; a
right to intepret, shape and produce
culture
Todos los niños tienen derecho a
experimentar la cultura y visitar
lugares de interés cultural; Tienen
derecho a interpretar, dar forma y
producir cultura.

10. Home culture should
not be marginalized
only within the home,
because there is a
risk that a child will
feel like a stranger at
home or at school or
both
La cultura del hogar
no debe ser limitada
solo al hogar, porque
existe el riesgo de
que un niño se sienta
como un extraño en el
hogar o en la escuela
o ambos.

11. • We talk about learning, not teaching
• Learning is a two way street – if
teacher is not learning during every
lesson something is wrong

12. • We concentrate to things that unite us, not the ones that are
different between cultures
• Nos concentramos en las cosas que nos unen, no en las que
son diferentes entre culturas

13. A questionnaire to
teachers (2017)
• We wanted to find out the needs and
hopes of teachers regarding world
heritage education.
• Questionnaire was organised as a part of
a regional teacher training conference on
world heritage education (5 conferences).
• Results show that teachers wish for
videos, ready-made and easy to use
teaching materials as well as training.

14. World heritage
education
• We work with children and youth
living close to World Heritage Sites to
produce videos of the site
• Pupils reported that they felt like
"acting as teachers” ”and are happy
that children and young people
around Finland (and the world?) can
access their video”
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af
PB3S5hll8&t=137s
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M
7aM6OjzzdY&t=1s

15. • We promote all Finnish schools to celebrate the World Heritage Day (18th of April)
• The online exhibition ‘Our Shared World Heritage’ tells about the world heritage process and the seven
Finnish World Heritage Sites with illustrative text and beautiful images. The exhibition and its related
learning materials with their questions and answers are available in Finnish, Swedish and English
• Link: http://www.kulttuurinvuosikello.fi

16. History Clubs
• We organise history clubs
for teenagers in 10 Finnish
towns and one in
Copenhagen
• At the clubs, the program
is made with the members
• Usually the clubs organise
visits to local museums,
theatre or cultural spots,
such as the oldest pizzeria
in town

17. •Being active/passive during
the museum visit

18. I am
interested
in…

19. Heritage Hubs
• A cross-cultural collaboration in which
11-15 year olds in Finland, Serbia and
Spain share a part of their own cultural
heritage and practise the cultural
heritage of others, digitally and in
person. Italy leads communication.
• The project will create educational
material to help educators integrate
cultural heritage and intercultural
dialogue into their work.
• 21 months project, funded by EACEA

20. Mobile Routes to Cultural
Heritage in World Heritage
Sites
• In this project pupils
create mobile routes at
a World Heritage site
and reveal their most
important places
• Routes are under
museum collections
and everybody can
download them and
take a ”tour with the
makers”

21. • Teacher training, seminars
• We educated teachers to ”Kipinöitä
kulttuuriperintöön” at Suomenlinna
Word Heritage site, where we
mixed some intangible heritage as
well: capoeira!
• ”Practical workshops and exercises
have been significant, and I now
have ideas how to vitalize my
lessons, also I have more
confidence when it comes to
cultural heritage education” -
teacher, 30 years old

22. Archeological project in Kontiolahti
• Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8z8NU2Ch6Y

23. • We produce learning materials for
teachers and schools, and have an online
material bank (Kulttuurinvuosikello.fi) for
teachers and educators to use. So far the
bank has over 500 ideas for teaching
materials and it has over 50 000
visitors/year.
• www.kulttuurinvuosikello.fi

24. Intangible cultural
heritage
• Producing
learning
materials for
schools
• Workshop tour
in Finnish
schools 2017
• https://vimeo.co
m/253222506

25. • Since 2013 we have been
planning the Cultural
Heritage makers -
competition. Its aim is to
inspire children and
young people to observe,
explore and analyze their
immediate surroundings.
• In 2018 the competition
expanded to all European
countries
• http://www.europeanher
itagedays.com/European-
Heritage-Makers-Week/

26. What is the most important heritage to you?
Write it down and add it to the Living
Heritage Tree on the wall!
Thank you!
Gracias!