Inclusion Despite Colonial Contexts? Critical Reflections through a Participatory Research Project with Students in a Natural Science Museum

Natural science museums can contribute to equitable quality education, but in order to do so, appropriate steps need to be taken to combat discrimination and promote inclusion in the institution. As these museums may behold objects historically linked to colonialism and perpetuate the dominance of western knowledge over other knowledge systems, it is necessary to address inclusion using a decolonial approach. Here we present recommendations to promote inclusion in the museum based on the results of a participatory research project with teenage students, with whom we explored colonial continuations in a natural science museum in Austria. With the help of an inclusive and postcolonial approach, we found that a lack of interactivity in the exhibitions hinder the interest of young people to visit the museum privately, but their interest increases as they are engaged with the work that happens behind the scenes. Thus, we recommend engaging more adolescents in the museum's workthrough collaborations with them, ensuring the inclusion of their perspectives in the creation of more interactive target-specific formats and social media strategies. Furthermore, our results highlighted the need to use diversity-sensitive language in the museum and improve cooperation with communities of origin and the integration of their expertise in exhibitions to foster inclusion of diverse society. All in all, our study shows the relevance of a participatory research setting to promote youth participation and address inclusion in a natural science museum.