Sharing stories we know: Engaging families in museums.

Museums are designed to engage families with young children with a welcoming, safe and stimulating environment. The staff involved with education, community programs, design, customer service and volunteer programs are central to this success. What staff know about and how they interact with young children and their parents, however, are rarely investigated. This report presents the experiences and views of 94 staff and 141 families at Melbourne Museum and Scienceworks during 2016. The findings show that the work of Museums Victoria to engage families with young children is very positive. There is potential to expand the professional development for staff across the sector and lead in this area, both nationally and internationally. The research has produced a Framework for Enabling Family Engagement as a reference and stimulus for museum staff and leadership for interpreting and enabling family engagement, with additional professional development tools in the form of narrative enquiry methods (Learning Through Narrative Inquiry).