Examining Meditation in Museums: A Literature Review

‘Backbone of the Profession’ Sets Us Apart

In the Spirit of Full Disclosure

This paper explores the discipline of Museum Studies considering its relationship to History. It addresses key differences between understandings of academic Museum Studies internationally, its distinction from museum practice, and interdisciplinary strengths. The paper is based on an extensive literature review, analysis, and reflections from 20 years of experience, both within the academic discipline of Museum Studies in the UK and of interdisciplinary, international, collaborative working across Europe. The paper argues that Critical Museum Studies as an ‘undisciplined’ or ‘disobedient’ academic field offers much of value for historians and those from other disciplines interested in understanding the role, influence and politics of museums, their impact on individuals and society. It also argues for the significance of Critical Museum Studies in offering diverse and rigorous means to analyse complex and contested uses of the past in, for and by contemporary society. The paper therefore contributes to the debates on the productive potential of interdisciplinarity for History, while emphasising the specific contributions of a critical Museum Studies, which are different from those of traditional Museum Studies, from studies of museums from other disciplines and from museum practice.

We propose a framework for understanding meditation that can support greater scientific rigor in reporting meditation research, and selecting meditation health interventions. There is no consistent and thorough framework for describing meditation research interventions. This impedes rigor of meditation research design and interpretation of findings. This also limits meaningful comparisons across research studies. The audience for this article includes researchers, meditation experts, healthcare professionals, and those with interest in meditation. The framework describes the key components of a meditation intervention. We also discuss how meditation can effect individuals differently, and provide suggestions for describing the qualifications of the expert who designed the meditations in an intervention. The meditation framework supports (1) comparing different meditation interventions, and (2) understanding how meditation interventions lead to outcomes. We provide examples from a Yoga Therapy perspective of meditation (our domain of expertise), and from published research on meditation to illustrate applications of the meditation framework. The meditation framework provides a way of characterizing meditation interventions by distinguishing seven essential components. The first four components describe the meditation session (individual, object, experience, and immediate effects). Approach describes the foundation and source of a meditation practice. The outcome component represents both intended goals or reasons for prescribing the meditation intervention and other longer term effects that may occur. The engagement component refers to duration, spacing and frequency of doing the practice and quality of attention. These seven components can be applied to any type of meditation intervention. We explain the components of the framework and then offer examples. Our goal is to express the importance of having a framework for describing components of meditation across systems of knowledge and methods of application. We hope this article begins a dialogue with experts in other forms of meditation interventions, as they apply, adapt and respond to the proposed framework.

Background: Evidence-based practice is important in improving the overall quality of patient care, enhance nursing practice and increase the confidence in decision-making. Evidence-based practice is a technique used in solving clinical issues regarding patient care by integrating well-designed evidence with patient preferences, patient assessments, and health professionals. This review aims to explore barriers that confront nursing in the implementation of evidence-based practice. Consequently, by determining some of the barriers to the implementation of EBP among nurses, health care systems can form solutions that allow the health centers to avoid such issues and execute the approach among health care providers. Methods: peer review was undertaken following a literature search in the databases involved CINAHL, MEDLINE and EBSCO Web of Science databases. Included studies were from October 2018 to December 2018, English language and peer-reviewed studies that aimed to explore the organizational and individual barriers within the healthcare setting. The quality appraisal tool was used to appraise all the included studies. Results: A total of 12 studies were included. Six studies were quantitative, five studies were qualitative, and one study used mixed methods. Four organizational barriers to implementing Evidence-based practice among nurses were found by reviewing the literature which is ("lack of support and supervision", "lack of training" and "education", "limited resources” and “time restriction”). While, four main themes were considering as an individual barrier to implementing Evidence-based practice among nurses: ("lack of nurses' knowledge", "skills and awareness regarding use the Evidence-based practice", "lack of professional characteristic", "nurses' attitude and experience in using" and "language barrier in using or implementing Evidence-based practice"). Conclusions and implications for future practice: Nursing administrators and educators have the main role to facilitate evidence-based practice implementation among nurses, therefore; the findings of this review can help to overcome the identified barriers. Training and education are important to enhance the knowledge and skills of nurses to use evidence-based practice. Time management, providing the required resources and adequate supervision can facilitate the implementation of evidence-based practice which positively influences the quality of care. For further research, it is very fruitful to investigate the common barriers of EBP in one specific culture such as the middle eastern culture. Furthermore, future research may focus on barriers of implementing EBP related to the patients and their families.

In the UK alone there are more than 2500 museums of interest to international and home audiences. Despite their prevalence and a strong museological culture in the UK and beyond, the geographic study of museums is relatively under‐developed. To date there has been no systematic overview of this field either in the UK or internationally. This review article is intended as a contribution towards an emerging ‘museum geography’. Beginning with an exploration of research on museums, collections and museum practice, the author then considers the recent ‘spatial turn’ in museum studies and discusses how geographers have variously encountered museums, collections and museum practice to date. The article then reviews the potential for the future study of museums by geographers. In so doing, the author suggests that the study of museums offers some exciting opportunities for geographical research and teaching.

We examined whether evidence-based practice (EBP) during dental school was associated with the increased use of peer-reviewed literature during subsequent clinical practice for National Dental Practice-Based Research Network (PBRN) dentists. We also sought to understand whether this association was moderated by being a dental specialist. We analyzed cross-sectional data from 1228 dentists participating in the PBRN. We used logistic regression to examine the association between self-reported EBP training during dental school and the use of peer-reviewed journals in clinical practice, controlling for the number of years since dental school graduation and dental practice type. We stratified the data by dental specialists and examined effect modification using the Breslow-Day test for homogeneity of the odds ratio. The prevalence of peer-reviewed journal use by PBRN dentists in clinical practice was 87% (n=1070) with no statistical evidence of effect modification by dental specialists on the EBP peer-reviewed journal use relationship (p>0.05). After controlling for years since dental school graduation and dental practice type, dentists who self-reported EBP training during dental school had greater odds of using peer-reviewed journals in clinical practice than dentists who did not self-report EBP training during dental school (OR, 1.47; 95%CI=1.01, 2.15). The use of peer-reviewed published literature by PBRN dentists who had EBP predoctoral training is one important step in the EBP process by which practicing dentists can implement evidence-based findings, interventions, and policies into routine health care and public health settings. These findings add to the body of support for EBP curricula in dental education.

Evidence-Based Practice in physiotherapy: a systematic review of barriers, enablers and interventions

IntroductionInternational migrants’ health has often been found to deteriorate in new countries, partly due to changes in health risk behaviours such as alcohol consumption, tobacco use, physical inactivity, and poor...

Defined at its most basic level, "museum studies" sometimes referred to as "museology" or "museum science" is the study of museums. Since its origins in the early 1900s, its development has been tied to ongoing discussions within associations like the American Association of Museums (AAM) and the International Council on Museums (ICOM) about how best to train those who work in professional roles in museums. Beyond its emphasis on practical training, museum studies scholarship also explores museums' cultural, political, and historical roles within society. Universities and other research institutions, like the Smithsonian and the Getty, offer a range of museum studies courses, graduate degrees, workshops, research, and publications. There is debate about how to approach the study of museums. The entry below offers discussion on these issues from a historical perspective. It largely focuses on the United States, although it should be noted that museum studies programs and scholarship exist around the world. Given the complexity of the museum field and museum studies and the number of individuals who have made contributions to its advancement, the discussion below is by no means exhaustive or complete.

The paper presents the concept of structure of scientific research on the phenomenon of the museum and museality. The initial thesis is the idea of the need to develop alternative approaches to defining the concepts museology, museum study, and museum practice. The approach of the culturologist Andrei Flier about culturology and cultural theory is chosen as the general methodological basis for developing the structure of scientific knowledge and its relation to areas of practice. Based on this approach, the author proposes a structure of knowledge on the museum and museality, which includes interrelated areas of scientific and applied research, as well as practical activities. The structure is depicted as a hierarchy going from philosophical knowledge and cultural theory to specific research and practical methods. The main fields of science and practice are the philosophy of museum and museality, museology, museum studies, museography, museum practice.

To examine practitioners', coaches', and athletes' perceptions of evidence-based practice (EBP) in professional sport in Australia. One hundred thirty-eight participants (practitioners n = 67, coaches n = 39, and athletes n = 32) in various professional sports in Australia each completed a group-specific online questionnaire. Questions focused on perceptions of research, the contribution of participants' own experience in implementing knowledge to practice, sources, and barriers for accessing and implementing EBP, preferred methods of feedback, and the required qualities of practitioners. All practitioners reported using EBP, while most coaches and athletes believed that EBP contributes to individual performance and preparation (>85%). Practitioners' preferred EBP information sources were "peer-reviewed journals" and "other practitioners within their sport," while athlete sources were "practitioners within their sport" and "other athletes within their sport." As primary barriers to accessing and implementing research, practitioners highlighted "time constraints," "poor research translation," and "nonapplicable research." Practitioners ranked "informal conversation" as their most valued method of providing feedback; however, coaches prefer feedback from "scheduled meetings," "online reports," or "shared database." Both athletes and coaches value "excellent knowledge of the sport," "experience," and "communication skills" in practitioners disseminating EBP. Practitioners, coaches, and athletes believe in the importance of EBP to their profession, although practitioners reported several barriers to accessing and implementing research as part of EBP. Athletes place a high value on experienced practitioners who have excellent knowledge of the sport and communication skills. Collectively, these findings can be used to further stakeholder understanding regarding EBP and the role of research to positively influence athlete health.

A decade ago, East (2008) examined the coverage of major museum studies journals by two major databases and one academic search engine, concluding that bibliographic control of the museum studies literature was inadequate and posed a barrier to further development of the field. In this article, we revisit the issues raised by East. We reevaluate the availability of core journals in museum studies through traditional venues and identify alternative access and discovery points, including academic citation search engines, journal content alerts, social media, and field‐specific websites. We then consider the open access movement and present five recommendations for leveraging open access to enhance discovery and access for the museum studies literature: maximize authors’ rights to their own content; publish scholarship in open access or hybrid journals; develop an open access fund for museum studies researchers and scholars; deposit work in open access repositories; and create new open access resources.

<p>The role that the physical environment of an exhibition plays in the visitor's experience of a museum is a topic that, though increasingly acknowledged in museum studies, has not yet received detailed attention from researchers. The interaction of exhibitor and visitor, in and through exhibitions, can be situated in the wider context of the recent paradigm shirt within museum practice, towards communication with the public and developments in museum theory, which consider the qualitative aspects of the visitor experience as an active dialogue, conversation or a process of meaning-making. This dissertation examines the interactive exhibit Stowaways in the permanent exhibition, Blood, Earth, Fire - Whāngai, Whenua, Ahi Kā, at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. It considers the question 'How does the physical environment affect the meanings that the visitor makes in and after visiting the exhibition?' The study builds on existing New Zealand research, which questioned the gap between exhibition creation and visitor reception. A theoretical framework was constructed from relevant strands of the literature of museum studies, visitor studies and exhibition design. A qualitative approach was employed, in order to examine in detail both the exhibition development process and then how the visitor responded to the exhibition. Several methods were used to conduct the research, such as archival research and interviews with both the museum staff and seven visitors, who came with their families to the exhibit. The findings provide interesting evidence of the complex and deep affect that the built exhibition space can have on the visitor, not just at the time of the visit but long afterwards. This was an affect that rippled out from the individual to their family group and everyday life. This dissertation makes a small but significant contribution to museum studies in New Zealand, through an integrated examination of the production and reception of a museum exhibit, from the perspective of both the visitor and the museum. One of the main conclusions was to re-iterate the important role of exhibition evaluation in facilitating a more complete communication between museum and visitor, by allowing museum professionals to build on the experience of the development process in a way that can inform future practice.</p>

The universe of the museum is in the process of profound transformation, a reflection of the societies in which museum institutions evolve. The number of museums has grown considerably and their activities have diversified. Our traditional understanding of this sector is no longer adapted to the present-day context and many are attempting to redefine it. The same holds true for the teaching of museum studies, since the milieu has been professionalised and has taken on new responsibilities. This article tracks recent developments in museum studies and invites the reader to reflect on current trends towards increasing the autonomy of the museum, in light of the fact that the museum has become an object of study. Limiting the discussion to a specific aspect of the museum, the author takes stock of the contribution made to the field by various disciplines. She also evaluates the museum's role and function in terms of eight meta-functions. There are increasing expectations of museums: they must reflect and attempt to make sense of society, resolve social problems and provide new orientations, serve as a lever for minorities and open a window onto other cultures. The challenges facing museums also affect the curriculum of museum studies programmes. Are we teaching in order to reproduce the status quo, or in order to effect change?