DOI: 10.11648/j.her.20261105.20 ISSN: 2578-935X

From Coursework Outputs to Public Heritage Interpretation: Mechanisms and Boundaries of University Labor Education in Grand Canal Heritage Transmission

Jingru Nie, Huihui Zhu, Hao Wang
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University labor education involving cultural heritage may contribute both to student learning and to forms of cultural expression intended for wider publics. Yet the conditions under which coursework outputs can become meaningful contributions to public heritage interpretation remain insufficiently explained. Taking the design of the “Revitalizing Historic Sites” project in the Zhenjiang section of China’s Grand Canal as a practice-based point of reference, this article undertakes theoretical integration and conceptual analysis informed by embodied cognition, place attachment, and people-centred heritage conservation. It examines the mechanisms and boundaries of university labor education in the interpretation of tangible, linear cultural heritage. The analysis suggests that problem-oriented task reframing can reposition heritage as an object of professional inquiry; embodied engagement and place-based interaction may create conditions for heritage understanding and attachment to place; and knowledge translation and public deliberation can enable coursework outputs to enter the public cultural sphere. At the organizational level, professionalization of labor content, project-based implementation process, curriculum integration of local resources, and public-oriented outcome expression must operate alongside the cross-cutting requirements of interpretive reliability, local reciprocity, and organizational continuity. By distinguishing among the educational process, public interpretation, and sustained contributions, the article argues that completing course assignments or achieving short-term visibility does not, in itself, demonstrate successful heritage transmission. It offers a conceptual framework for assessing the possibilities and limits of university labor education in public heritage interpretation.

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