Intercultural Communication between Museum Educators and Museum Visitors. A Qualitative Study at Swedish Museums

Abstract

This qualitative study investigates intercultural communication between museum educators and museum visitors in museums in Gothenburg City, Sweden. The study was conducted as a thematic content analysis, where the content of six transcribed interviews with museum educators from three public museums and 13 questionnaires filled in by non-Swedish, adult nationals attending guided tours hosted by Swedish museum educators where analyzed and discussed. The results show that the informants have a high level of cultural awareness and intercultural competence. Furthermore, intercultural communication between the two groups was shown to be an on-going process with overwhelming positive effects. In addition, more intercultural training for museum educators was noted as desired by the informants themselves. The results and conclusions of the study are regarded as indicative and given the limited sample, generalizations are neither sought nor called for. Moreover, although cultural aspects were found to influence the communication behavior between museum educators and museum visitors, other traits such as gender, age, religion, and individual characteristics were also found to influence this communication. Finally, further studies were proposed, including observation studies, bigger sample groups and studies that would take into account more variables than the study of national culture.