Museum–School Partnerships as Innovation Catalysts: Centring Youth Voice in Intercultural Education

This chapter examines how museum–school partnerships can serve as innovative educational models that centre youth voice and cultural knowledge in addressing persistent challenges in intercultural education. Drawing from a qualitative study of immigrant youth participating in the Teen Dialogues programme at the Penn Museum,1 this work demonstrates how community-based educational partnerships can challenge traditional power dynamics and create transformative learning environments. The research reveals that immigrant youth possess sophisticated cultural knowledge developed through family relationships, peer interactions, and media engagement – expertise that remains largely untapped in formal educational settings. Through the Teen Dialogues programme, participants engaged in reciprocal cultural storytelling, developed concrete intercultural skills, and navigated complex identity negotiations in psychologically safe spaces rarely available in traditional school settings. This innovation challenges deficit-based approaches to multicultural education by positioning students as cultural knowledge-bearers rather than recipients of cultural information. The museum–school partnership model demonstrates how community organizations can complement formal education by providing ‘third spaces’ where students’ funds of knowledge are recognized and valued through shared authority between students, educators, and museum staff. Findings suggest that sustainable educational innovation requires moving beyond technological solutions to embrace models that fundamentally restructure relationships between students, educators, and community partners in ways that honour diverse perspectives and promote authentic intercultural understanding.