Intergenerational Learning: Understanding the Process of Collective Learning in a Family Case Study

• In Event: Ingenuity and the Shaping of New Participation Trajectories: Examining Connected Learning Through Joint Mediated Practices in the Home

Abstract

Objectives:
Through a case study, we examine the collective learning process of one family. Our initial findings underscore learning and expertise as fluid across participants and more loosely confined in structure than traditional school norms allow. We seek to understand the collective learning process to gain insight into robust pedagogical practices that can be incorporated in school settings.

Perspective:
Grounded in the notion that learning happens in and through everyday practices (Vygotsky, 1978), we shift our attention from individual learning to understanding and documenting learning as collective processes (Cole & Gajdamashko, 2009). We conceptualize the family home as an activity system (Engeström, 2001) to pay attention to ways ideas are introduced and taken up, and the role of physical positioning for apprenticeship (Vossoughi, 2015).

Methods, Participants & Data:
This poster is a subset of data collected from a larger research project seeking to understand connected learning across contexts. We focused on one Latino, working class family comprised of four children, two parents, one grandparent and extended family in the local area. For this family, we collected over 20 hours of video data, 10 activity logs, 3 hours of interview data and 6 family surveys intended to capture perceptions regarding health, education, energy, and social media. Data reduction and analysis include the creation and analysis of content logs and analytic notes for family video and audio interviews, as well as group discussions to understand practices across families in the larger study.

Results:
In this poster we present two initial sets of findings: 1) fluidity of knowledge, and 2) importance of physical positioning in apprenticeship. The fluidity of movement is comprised of both intergenerational and multi-directional learning. Intergenerational learning demonstrates the way learning moves across and within generations. Through capturing traditional healing practices, or remedios, and the incorporation of recycling practices initially introduced by the child and video gameplay into the family, we document the way learning traveled from older to younger generations, from younger to older generations, and within the same generation. This fluidity across generations and multi-directionality underscores the importance of designing spaces that seek to rupture traditional and binary roles of teacher and student (Gutierrez & Vossoughi, 2010; Rogoff, 2003).

Second, we document how physical positioning was central in the apprenticeship of family practices for the two-year-old who was often included in adult spaces. We argue that physical position potentially creates a strong foundation for a collaborative learning environment. This observation underscores the need for intentional design of learning environments to also consider physical positioning and spaces as directly relevant to learning (Vossoughi, 2015).

Significance:
Research looking at low-income Latino families, and middle-income White families has shown differences in general family everyday practices across groups (Rogoff, 2003; O’Connor & Penuel, 2010). Given that schools are traditionally grounded in White, middle-class norms, we argue that understanding the family dynamics of learning in nondominant households provides insight into pedagogical practices that are more inclusive and foster expansive learning (Gutiérrez, 2008).

Authors

• Elizabeth Mendoza, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Samuel Martinez, University of California - Berkeley

• Kris D. Gutiérrez, University of California - Berkeley