Peace education programs in children's and youth museums

With "New Museology" approach museums have become visitor-focused rather than object-centered. Thanks to this advance, museums gained a character that advice solutions to the society's various problems and play a significant role in social area. Unlike traditional museums, children's and youth museums were visitor-focused and gave importance to the function of education since their early examples. Today, taking on the task of being community centers many children's and youth museums are organizing activities and programs presenting solutions to social problems such as ecologic consciousness, consuming habits, immigrant and minority problems, removing prejudices, settling multicultural approach, and improving peace culture. Children's and youth museums are influential community areas in peace education practice. Nowadays peace culture is one of the vital issues and it is tried to improve all around the world with an integrated view not only in hot battle fields, but also in personal peace of mind. Recently museums arrange peace education programs. However there is not sufficient information about the general structure of peace education programs and their curriculum development strategies, influence, and evaluations. Also, the academic researches on these programs are unsatisfactory. The aim of this research is to make a contribution to understanding of peace education programs applied in children's and youth museums. In the research those programs are depicted, their basic characteristics are evaluated with descriptive data, and the views of museum professionals arranging the programs about curriculum development strategies are explained. In the study mixed method is used. First, a literature research is made on peace education programs in the world and children's and youth museums. Second, through a survey and detailed interviews a fieldwork is realized. In the fieldwork, it is focused on peace education programs applied in children's and youth museums between 2000 and 2012. Fieldwork chapter elaborates the survey and then interviews made with selected museums. The results of the fieldwork show that most of contributor museums organize peace education programs. The chapter analyzes description of those programs, their curriculum development strategies and significant points of developing process.