The article wonders about the transition of school museums from their beginnings in the mid-19th century onwards. What were the names that these museums have had through time and how have they developed during their operation? The traditional names of museums, content-oriented in the history of education are different (school, pedagogical, museum of education) and they more represent the historical development of the institution or the tradition than its true content. What has influenced on the changes of museum content? Through history, the school/pedagogical museums have understood their duties differently and the historical depiction of the development of school has not always been at the forefront. An important part of museums activity was the promotion of the modern pedagogical work and care for the progress of education and monitoring the development of innovations in the area of teaching aids and methods. Exhibitions of teaching aids at regional conventions of teachers, as well as global education exhibitions, since the second half of 19th century have been intended for this – there were also incentives for the development of school museum from both sources. One of the questions of the transition of school museums is also connected with political changes and wars. How were the differences in school museums shown after the WW2 in the political East and West of Europe? Were there more similarities or differences between the historically oriented museums in socialist countries and those in the West in the 1970’s and 1980’s? How wide (and European) is the presentation of education in local and regional school museums? Are the national museums, as they are known in some countries in the West (France, the Netherlands, a few years ago also Denmark) or in the majority of Slavic countries more a representation of a centralist state or cultural/linguistic identity? 

The economic development in the Western Europe with its changes of transitional and population movement has changed the network of schools and has thus opened the room for new school museums in the 1970’s (also in Germany, the traditional state of school museums). The development of such museums was in some places influenced by universities, in other places the initiatives of individuals or societies, and in some places by the already working general museums. How has the political transition with democratisation influenced on the actualisation of school museums in the West (e.g. Spain) and how in the East, everywhere also with opening of previously politically neglected topics. The transition and opening of withheld contents can be also presented on the example of the history of education in museums in the West and even more in the countries in the East of Europe. School, as a predominantly national education (at the establishment of compulsory education in Habsburg Empire in 1774 the school was understood as “politicum”), reflects the political orientations of a country; the images of rulers, flags and holidays are an integral part of the transition of education through history. Can the presentation of school in the time of empires or totalitarian regimes in a museum really disruptive for the development of critical citizenship or does it, by critical handling, actually encourage it? How does the modern orientation of museums into the study of cultural heritage and analysis of pedagogical development, that complement the collector and exhibition activities, intertwine with almost theatrically designed teaching lessons from 100 years ago as one of the active forms of museum pedagogy? What is making the operation of numerous, but very different school museums, becoming more and more diverse and rich from the point of view of museology, pedagogy and history of education?

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