When Parents Stand Back Is Family Learning Still Possible?

The family learning initiative at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis emphasizes adult-child interaction in exhibitions and programs. Across four years of exhibition evaluation, data reveal an observable pattern of adults standing back, apparently not interacting with their children. However, further examinations of the data reveal that some, not all, parents are closely watching their children and making choices about how they interact. Even though a children's museum is family oriented, parents and children operate in many different ways, and so too should staff expectations of their behavior differ. In this article the authors present a meta-interpretation of family engagement in a children's museum that reviews on-going preferences for parent-child involvement and expectations for related behaviors and exhibition goals. The authors explore intentional design efforts that foster family engagement and discuss the reasons that families may choose not to continually and directly engage with each other while in the museum.