Wagoner, Brady and Jensen, Eric (2010) Learning and legitimacy : the zoo's self-presentation and its constructive appropriation by children. In: 6th International Conference on The Dialogical Self, Athens, Greece, 30 Sep-09 Oct 2010 (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Zoos attract hundreds of millions of visitors every year worldwide. As such they are key institutions for publics to engage with live animals and environmental education, and to support conservation. But there is also a longstanding social representation of zoos as primarily serving a “spectacle” function—as the earliest zoos unashamedly did. Within the context of growing bioethical concern about holding animals in captivity, zoos have emphasized three main functions: education, research and conservation—although, in fact, a small percentage of zoos’ budgets are actually spent exclusively on these activities. Thus, zoos have come to legitimize themselves by emphasizing these other efforts. To examine the ways in which zoos communicate this self-legitimizing message and the way it is constructively understood by zoos’ most important audience –children-, we draw upon an evaluation study on the impact of the ZSL London Zoo’s educational programs. The study shows that children often employ their own strategies to reinterpret the zoo’s intended message, to constructively elaborate on the communication through their own background.

Item Type:	Conference Item (Paper)
Subjects:	L Education > L Education (General) Q Science > QL Zoology
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology
Date:	1 October 2010
Status:	Not Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Conference Paper Type:	Paper
Title of Event:	6th International Conference on The Dialogical Self
Type of Event:	Conference
Location of Event:	Athens, Greece
Date(s) of Event:	30 Sep-09 Oct 2010
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/46624

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