A critical perspective on current models of intergenerational learning

Research into different aspects of intergenerationalities continues to develop at a considerable pace for individuals, communities, and society. Multiple practices for older people are organized around the presumed benefits of intergenerational interaction, with intergenerational programming operating as a taken-for-granted practice. However, the merits of this approach, the models that inform practice, and the learning that takes place between older and younger people, remain under-theorized. This paper discusses dominant theoretical frameworks including developmental and psychosocial models of intergenerational learning such as the Social Cognitive Learning model, and the Life Span approach (Erikson 1963; VanderVan, 2011). It documents how the field of intergenerationality is conceptualized in the realms of learning; how models retain age and stage based assumptions, including the polarizing discourses of ‘decline’ and ‘activity’. By understanding the underlying assumptions of intergenerational learning, this paper makes an important contribution to the theoretical foundations that are required to build intergenerational landscapes.