Primary teachers perceptions about the museum and its functions

While museums are a living space that presents people's knowledge of humanity and life experiences of humanity, they are active informal learning environments where the paradigm of learning by doing corresponds to the fact that they include knowledge and experience together. Compared to other informal learning environments, the biggest advantage of museums is that they can provide educational experiences to individuals and offer the opportunity to learn by seeing, hearing, practicing and living. Teachers, on the other hand, are key actors who serve the museum's mission to create and promote education and experience. In this context, in this study, primary school teachers' perceptions of the museum and its functions are investigated. The study was conducted based on the qualitative research model. The research was carried out in the basic qualitative research design. The study group of the research consisted of 14 primary school teachers selected by the criterion sampling method, which is one of the purposeful sampling methods, among the classroom teachers working in the official primary schools in Mersin, Akdeniz, Mezitli, Toroslar and Yenişehir districts in the 2022-2023 academic year. Data were collected through interview. In the analysis of the data, a hierarchical coding was carried out by using code, category and theme systematics.ß The results showed that the participants perceived the museum as focused on "history and culture", "learning and personal development" and "material evidence"; It has been determined that they perceive the functions of the museum in the context of "educational", "technical", "artistic" and "social". The results of the research showed that primary school teachers tend to categorize the museum and its functions according to their relationship with the museum.