En yrkesgrupp vars tid nalkas eller vars tid är förbi? En professionsstudie om museipedagogers upplevelse av sin yrkesroll och dess position inom museiverksamheter

Sammanfattning: Contemporary museological research concentrates to a greater extent on the influence of external factors by the museum institution rather than internal influencing forces. There are few studies on the employees' influence of the museum activities. This master’s thesis developed from a curiosity for the museum teacher as a professional group that also created a motivation to examine this unexplored area. The purpose is to study museum teachers' experience and presentation of their professional role. The aim is to create an understanding of the profession's transformation and how it is positioned in Swedish museums today. I also have the intention of examining which societal changes affect the professional group and those changes which may affect the position of the museum teachers in the future. The study is based on six qualitative semi structured interviews with museum teachers who work in different types of museums and in different cities around Sweden. The theoretical framework of the study is professional-theory according to sociologist Thomas Brante. This study is placed within the museological perspective in the sense that the study is about and focus on the museum as an institution where the internal activities are examined with focus on the museum teacher as a professional group. In the study I found that the museum teachers' professional identity has changed. These changes are characterized by political and cultural conditions. The status of the museum teacher increased when the museums' main focus shifted to outward activities. The result, however, shows different views on this issue regarding the status. The museum teacher receives low status in relation to other professional groups within the museum. The museum teachers in the study claim that museums are shaped by a hierarchical structure, where the distinction between competencies of the museum teacher and other professional groups at the museum, are important in order to maintain and advance its positioning within the operations. This is a collective as well as individual struggle for the professional group's establishment. Another professional change this study presents is about a reorganization of the professional structure. The change stems from the museum activities' shift in focus, which lead to the flourishing of pedagogy in all parts of the museum activities. Therefore, the museum educational tasks have been distributed among more professional groups. The museum teacher is defined as a welfare professional that safeguards the citizens' rights to participation in cultural life and realizes cultural policy decisions within the museum field. The importance of practical experience of the museums' pedagogical profession and at the same time its strong connection to museological science is strongly emphasized within the study.