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Voyage to Vietnam Remedial/Summative Report Voyage to Vietnam Remedial/Summative Report Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose Fall 2015 Table of Contents Overview 3 Theoretical Approach & Methods 5 Results 9 Satisfaction & Enjoyment 10 Engagement 13 Cultural Understanding 20 Perceived Value of Cultural Exhibitions 31 Conclusions 32 References 34 Appendices 36 Credits All photos: Garibay Group Garibay Group | Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose | Voyage to Vietnam | Remedial/Summative Evaluation | Fall 2015 2 Overview The Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose (CDM) contracted Garibay Group to conduct an evaluation of the Voyage to Vietnam: Celebrating the Tết Festival exhibition. The evaluation focused on remediation but also served as a summative study. This report discusses summative findings. Voyage to Vietnam: Celebrating the Tết The summative aspects of the evaluation Evaluation Focus Festival was designed to help children ages focused on assessing outcomes, more • Assess the overall nature and quality of 3–10 and their families engage with the specifically the overall nature and quality of the visitor experience in the exhibition, traditions of Tết and learn more about the visitor experience—particularly how and to particularly how and extent to which the Vietnam in general through fun, exciting what extent the exhibition helped build exhibition encouraged families to play experiences and immersive environments. visitors’ understanding of Vietnam and and learn together. Voyage to Vietnam is part of the Freeman Vietnamese culture; identifying ways the Foundation Asian Culture Exhibit Series. exhibition helped children discover similarities • Assess how and to what extent the and differences between their lives in the U.S. exhibition helped build visitors’ The overall exhibition consisted of 13 key and the lives of children in Vietnam; and understanding and appreciation of areas/components. The exhibition’s goal was identifying both successful and less Vietnam and Vietnamese customs, to provide American children an opportunity to successful aspects of the exhibition. traditions, rituals, and values. gain understanding, appreciation, and respect • Identify how and to what extent the for the customs, traditions, rituals, values, and exhibition helped families discover and daily experiences of people who live in think about similarities and differences Vietnam, discovering similarities and between their lives and the lives of differences between their lives and the lives of children in Vietnam. children in Vietnam. • Identify aspects of the exhibition that Garibay Group provided an interim preliminary worked well and those that were less evaluation report for the CDM team. The successful in order to inform potential remediation report focused on identifying remediation. strengths and challenges of the exhibition with (See Appendix B for the complete list of recommendations for remediation (see guiding questions.) Appendix A for a summary table describing recommendations for remediation). Garibay Group | Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose | Voyage to Vietnam | Remedial/Summative Evaluation | Fall 2015 3 Overview, cont’d. The Voyage to Vietnam exhibition had 13 key areas/components. See Appendix C for a description of each area and component. Interactive Map Lucky Money Tree Kitchen Sweep Away New Year’s Gateway Sharing Memories Map of Vietnam Indoor Cooktop Celebration Table Courtyard Zodiac Wheel Outdoor Cooktop Fireworks Rice-Cake Puzzle Marketplace Scooter Fruit Stand Living Room Café Family Photos Ancestor Altar Dress-Up Bamboo Bridge Water Puppets Lion Dance Music Pavilion Bầu Cua Cá Cọp Garibay Group | Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose | Voyage to Vietnam | Remedial/Summative Evaluation | Fall 2015 4 Theoretical Approach & Methods In this section, we discuss key theoretical frames about culture and cultural awareness that grounded the evaluation design, the analysis of visitors’ interactions and experiences, and outcomes assessment. This study used a culturally responsive/ Thus, developing cultural understanding is a contextually relevant evaluation approach non-linear, complex, dynamic process that Culture and the Iceberg Model (Frierson, Hood, and Hughes, 2002). In occurs over time (Burchum, 2002). This Culture is a complex concept difficult to culturally responsive evaluation, the evaluator implies that generalized knowledge succinctly define, but encompasses considers culture and context as critical hierarchies typically developed for museum symbols, stories, rituals, tools, shared factors that inform evaluation design (e.g., experiences are limited because they tend to values, and norms (Heath, 2007). methods, analysis) and allow one to examine outline a linear process. A more appropriate Individuals are socialized into their own outcomes. and culturally responsive frame for assessing culture, which influences how they an exhibition’s outcomes is to examine how understand and interpret the world and Given Voyage to Vietnam’s exhibition goals, it the exhibition contributes to and fosters embeds them within a specific cultural was important to ground the study through an visitors’ ongoing journeys in developing context; this can make it difficult to appropriate theoretical framework. Culture is cultural understanding and appreciation. For understand cultural practices they perceive complex and dynamic and has many example, what happens in families’ to differ from their own. dimensions. experiences that supports them in exploring, talking about, and reflecting on their own (and The most visible aspects of the culture to It is important to outline the process by which Vietnamese) culture? others are material culture—physical one gains understanding, appreciation, and objects, food, language, clothing, respect for another culture. Goode (2006) architecture, and the spaces that people suggests that cultural understanding and use. The deeper dimensions of culture, appreciation entail being “cognizant, including values, beliefs, and norms, are observant, and conscious of similarities and not readily visible to outsiders. differences among and between cultural groups.” This understanding also requires The cultural iceberg model (Hall, 1976) is cultural self-awareness—the ability to be widely used to illustrate this concept. One cognizant and self-reflective about how one’s often thinks of culture as the observable own values, beliefs, and judgments are characteristics of a group, but in reality, influenced by one’s culture (Winkelman, material culture—while significant—is only 2005). part of a more complex concept. Second, it is useful to recognize that culture is complex; some aspects of culture are more readily visible and accessible (e.g., food) and In the iceberg model, the explicit aspects of a other aspects that are less readily apparent culture are readily apparent to people not part (e.g., beliefs). (See sidebar for more details.) of the culture. The tacit aspects can be difficult for those outside the culture to perceive. Garibay Group | Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose | Voyage to Vietnam | Remedial/Summative Evaluation | Fall 2015 5 Theoretical Approach & Methods, cont’d. Drawing on these theoretical constructs, this • Reflection & Synthesis: Finally, we study assessed the overall exhibition outcome examined whether families articulated ways using the following framework: that the exhibition deepened their understanding or appreciation of • Engagement: We examined what visitors Vietnamese culture. We listened to them did in the exhibition that exposed them to, or talk about their subjective experience in the allowed them to physically or intellectually exhibition and how they wove the engage with, Vietnamese culture. We experience into their understanding of focused especially on evaluating how much Vietnam and Vietnamese culture. We also families engaged physically with material looked for whether visitors reported culture and engaged in role playing and increased interest in experiencing or imaginative play that supported their gaining learning about Vietnam and Vietnamese a sense of Vietnam and Vietnamese culture. culture. • Culture Talk: During observations, we A researcher administers an exit survey. Exit looked for the ways families interacted and Methods surveys included both close-ended and open- discussed their experiences in the exhibition The summative evaluation of Voyage to ended questions and were conducted in English to examine the cultural content of Vietnam used a mixed-methods approach and Spanish. conversations. We also looked at the extent involving both qualitative and qualitative to which conversations included evidence of methods (Greene & Caracelli, 2003). Methods families discovering similarities and used included exit surveys, observations, differences between their lives and the lives intercept interviews, and depth interviews. of children in Vietnam. Given the ages of children in the groups, “culture talk” in the Exit Surveys case of Voyage to Vietnam does not mean The evaluation team used exit surveys to long, extended conversations, but rather gather feedback from visitors on aspects of short snippets of conversation or chats. the exhibition including satisfaction, We focused on capturing and examining enjoyment, and how much the exhibition conversations in visitors groups as they helped families learn about and become more engaged in the exhibit. This was done to aware of and interested in Vietnam. examine the extent to which discussions centered on cultural content, either explicit As families
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