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Archaeological education has risen in popularity in recent years. Therefore, sharing experiences and ideas about best practices is more important now than ever before. Archaeological education is currently practiced in classrooms, museums, outdoor events, learning games, and public excavations. All of which make use of the concept of active learning. These experiences are, in and of themselves, valuable for individuals, communities, and archaeological institutions.

Archaeology already has that “certain something” that inspires people of all ages. Yet archaeologists should also dig deeper to critically reflect on and assess the results of archaeological education projects. This is best achieved by sharing experiences between archaeological educators to create new ways to assess educational outcomes, define clearer goals for educational projects, and promote new strategies to implement archaeological curricula. Further, it is equally important for archaeological educators to reflect on future challenges and opportunities to develop their methodologies in relation to schools, future technologies, and pedagogical theories. To meet these needs, Nordic Approaches to Archaeological Education aims to provide the facilitators of public archaeology with the opportunity to meet and discuss their ideas and the challenges they face. As such, we host a conference on this topic at the University Turku, Finland on 25th of November 2021.

The conference participants will be invited to contribute papers about the ideas they shared to a publication about the theory, methods, assessment, and practice of archaeological education. Following the conference, the primary partners listed in this application will meet to discuss the coordination of this process and to plan for publication in 2022.