Museum Business and Museum Education in Buryatia: Paradigms of Development
In this article, the author considers the history of the formation and modern development of museum business as well as traditions of museum education in Russia in general, in Buryatia in particular. The role of entrepreneurs, of local scientific community and intellectuals in the organization of museums in Western Transbaikalia is shown. The specifics of organizing the museum work in the region consisted in the fact that the collections of the first museums were formed as a result of expeditionary research to study and develop the wealth of the Siberian land. The emerging museums had a close relationship with scientific societies. This was the specificity that grew into an awareness of the role of the museum, first of all, as a research institution, and only later the cultural norm, socio-cultural institute. It is shown in the transformation of the role and significance of the museum with a change in the political system. In the late 1980s. some universities in Moscow and Leningrad opened specialized departments for training the museum specialists. The third university in the country where the department of museology was opened was East-Siberian State Institute of Culture. The analysis of the development processes of specialized museum education, including the introduction of professional and new educational standards, was carried out on the basis of Department of Museology and Heritage of East-Siberian State Institute of Culture. The author considers it important to integrate professional standards that define specific labor functions by qualification levels and a modern practice-oriented competency-based approach in museum education.