Authentic Family Learning: Reconceptualizing Intergenerational Education Initiatives in Jamaica and England Through Cross-Cultural Conversation

Abstract

This paper shares a set of cross-cultural conversations between two family learning practitioner-researchers, one from Jamaica and one from England. Our concern that global education policies reflect and reproduce a social investment perspective, positioning family learning as a way to generate productive citizens, drives this paper. Using Charlotte Hardacre’s authentic family learning as a conceptual framework, we reexamine ourongoing work with families. An analysis of these cross-cultural conversations reveals that along with valuing the existing agency and identity of participants, there is also a need to balance the role of power enacted by practitioners; ultimately reconceptualizing power as a positive force that does not require inversion, minimization, or removal.