Linking educational tourism to school curriculum: elaborating a nuclear tourism route in Ignalina nuclear power plant region
ENIn recent decades, learning at museums and tourist sites has become increasingly relevant when emphasis has been placed on greater collaboration between the formal and informal education institutions and stakeholders looking for new opportunities for learning outside of school. Educational and learning activities in informal settings become an important domain of educational and cultural tourism, and school tourism is considered a valuable segment of the tourism industry. The authors of this chapter present a case for creating the atomic/ nuclear tourism virtual route Atomic Visaginas https:// www. atomin isvi sagi nas.lt/ lt/ in Ignalina Power Plant (INPP) region in Lithuania. The research question raised in this chapter is— what are the opportunities, strategies, and challenges associated with linking educational tourism activities and products to the curriculum of formal education?.Objectives of the research presented in the chapter reflect the authors’ efforts (1) to reveal opportunities for creating connections between formal school curriculum and nonformal and informal learning outside the school in the settings of educational tourism destinations; (2) to delineate the specific features of nuclear tourism in Lithuania by employing a literature review and referring to findings of participatory action research with the involvement of stakeholders from Ignalina Power Plant (INPP) region; (3) to propose pedagogical strategies and solutions to establish links between geography and history curricula and the content of the nuclear tourist route in Lithuania. Keywords: educational tourism, outdoor education, school geography, nuclear tourism, atomic heritage, energy tourism, digital storytelling, narrative geography. [From the publication]
- Commodification of cultural identities and/or empowerment of local communities : developing a route of nuclear tourism / Natalija Mažeikienė, Eglė Gerulaitienė. Society. Integration. Education 2018, vol. 5, p. 145-158.
- Deindustrializacija, socialinis nesaugumas ir išgyvenimo strategijos posovietinėje erdvėje : Visagino atvejis / Kristina Šliavaitė. Lietuvos etnologija. 2010, 10 (19), p. 93-116.
- Energy tourism at nuclear power plants: between educational mission and retention of "Safety myth" / Eglė Gerulaitienė, Natalija Mažeikienė. Learning the nuclear: educational tourism in (post)industrial sites / Natalija Mažeikienė (editor). Bern: Peter Lang, 2021. P. 135-174.
- Etninės mažumos darbo rinkoje: kalbos, pilietybės ir socialinių tinklų reikšmė (Visagino atvejis) / Kristina Šliavaitė. Etniškumo studijos. 2012, Nr. 1/2, p. 103-125.
- Learning the nuclear: educational tourism in (post)industrial sites / Natalija Mažeikienė (editor). Bern : Peter Lang, 2021. 386 p.
- Miesto socialinis ekonominis kontekstas ir tautinio tapatumo raiška: Visagino miesto atvejis / Liutauras Labanauskas. Etniškumo studijos. 2014, Nr. 2, p. 125-143.
- Post-Soviet transitions of the planned socialist towns: Visaginas, Lithuania / Rasa Baločkaitė. Studies of transition states and societies. 2010, Vol. 2, iss. 2, p. 63-81.
- Toward a new energy paradigm in geography: revisiting the curriculum and teaching practices / Natalija Mažeikienė, Odeta Norkutė. Journal of Education Culture and Society. 2021, 1, p. 131-150.
