Transgenerational Learning within Families

Abstract

This article proposes a data-driven transgenerational learning model to reconceptualize the study of literacy learning within families.  Based on an empirical study composed of case studies of six families, the data and findings of the larger study foregrounded the “messiness” of learning within families.  Studying learning within families requires a fundamental shift in viewing how learning is socially and culturally organized and how families engage their children in learning experiences.  Problematizing the notion of the intergenerational transmission of knowledge and beliefs from parents to children, the article highlights how a transgenerational lens provides an alternative way of viewing how and why parents and children engage in learning experiences around reading in the home and school.  Implications for viewing families as complex units whose knowledge and belief systems cross generations through the process of reciprocal socialization are discussed.