Delivery Museum: challenges and opportunities for school innovation

Abstract

The Delivery Museum (DM) is an innovative project developed by the Musei Civici di Reggio Emilia that relocates a portable museum installation directly into schools for a week. Grounded in the theoretical framework of «Widespread Education», the project shifts the traditional perspective by bringing museum heritage and methodologies into everyday educational spaces to transform the school environment. This study, conducted in collaboration with the Research Center on Teachers and Educational Innovation (CERIID), utilizes ethnographic participant observation and pre- and post-testing to analyze the project’s impact on 1st through 5th-grade students and their teachers. Results demonstrate that the DM broadens students' perceptions of museums, evolving their understanding from simple exhibition sites to complex environments for inquiry, exploration, and interdisciplinary learning. While the installation inspires a wide variety of pedagogical activities-ranging from basic documentation to advanced projects like creating multi-disciplinary timelines and geographic maps—the research identifies a persistent challenge for some teachers in moving beyond traditional transmissive models toward fully autonomous, inquiry-based learning. Ultimately, the DM serves as a significant cultural device that fosters holistic learning and integrates formal and non-formal education, highlighting the necessity for sustained methodological support to achieve a new paradigm of heritage-informed school innovation.