Heritage Education – Past, Present and Future

This article comes at a time when it is urgent to be more concerned about the future (or lack thereof) of heritage education, especially given the constant evolution of digital media. These digital media can and should be tools that benefit the dissemination of Cultural Heritage, but they should not replace a more personal and real interaction with a particular cultural asset, whether tangible or intangible.

That said, in order to ensure well-researched content that promotes debate, this article will be divided into two perspectives.

 

Perspective of Ana Rita Rodrigues, Graduate in Cultural Heritage Management (ESE-P.PORTO) and Master's student in History and Heritage (FLUP) https://www.linkedin.com/in/ana-rita-rodrigues-220a27325/

Heritage education is, in my opinion, one of the most undervalued fields in today's society. And this undervaluation starts at the very beginning: the concept of heritage itself is not properly understood by most people. If we do not know what heritage is, it is difficult to understand the importance of educating people about it. This creates a kind of snowball effect, in which a lack of clarity leads to a lack of care and, consequently, negligence.

 

For me, heritage education is crucial because it is not limited to looking at the past: it is a way of securing the future. By educating people about heritage, we are cultivating respect and responsibility, ensuring that cultural assets, traditions and local and international memories are not lost, but passed on. It is therefore a long-term investment that ensures the continuity of collective identity.



More than just memorising dates or architectural styles, heritage education means creating a sense of belonging. It means realising that caring for a chapel, a museum, a popular festival or even an oral memory is not just about preserving “old things”, but about safeguarding our identity. By preserving, we also cultivate, and by cultivating, we create conditions for future generations to enjoy the cultural wealth we have inherited.

 

Ultimately, heritage education is an exercise in citizenship. It teaches us to care for what we share, to value what we receive, and to recognise that collective identity can only survive if it is continually nurtured. Without it, we risk living in a present without roots and leaving behind a future without memory. 

 

 

Perspective of Tiago Serralva Almeida, Graduate in Cultural Heritage Management (ESE-P.PORTO) and Master in Heritage, Arts and Cultural Tourism (ESE-P.PORTO) https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiago-serralva-almeida-7275071b1/

When we deconstruct the concept of Cultural Heritage, we realise that its roots are extensive. In Europe, concern for this concept arose in the 19th century, especially during the ‘(...) development of the capitalist mode of production linked to industrialisation’ (Pozzer, M. (2018). The Historical Construction of Cultural Heritage. Revista Historiador Number 10. Year 10). Industrialisation brought jobs and progress, but also a fear inherent in all human beings, the fear of the unknown and the ‘new’. 

 

Heritage education also seeks to deconstruct the idea that cultural heritage is static and does not keep pace with the times. Wrong! It is up to education and heritage professionals to show younger generations that, even though the world and the nations are moving towards a fully digital age of fast and increasingly accessible information, true knowledge about ourselves lies in our cultural identity.

In turn, cultural identity is also a difficult concept to explain. In my view, educating is not only about explaining the reason or clarifying a particular definition, but also about giving examples. This is the best way to explain what cultural identity is and how it manifests itself: 

 

Cultural identity arises from two lines of thought: the sense of belonging and how we preserve it. On the one hand, the sense of belonging helps us understand where we fit into the territory and what kind of cultural and social customs make us feel proud. On the other hand, we must also think about the future in order to preserve the past, maintain that pride and pass it on from generation to generation. To this end, heritage education can and should also be used to raise awareness. I am talking about the importance of treating our monuments, museums, art galleries, archaeological sites and people with respect and visiting them.

Note that I wrote ‘people’. They are also Heritage and History, living off the immateriality that industrial development has brought, yet reviving the materiality and craftsmanship that once built Empires.