Rural older adults often feel disconnected from the ever-expanding digital world. To bridge the digital divide, researchers have investigated the effectiveness of formal education and training offered by various social institutions. However, existing research highlights a critical shortcoming in these approaches: a lack of attention paid to rural older adults’ individual needs and interests. Based on the theories of post-metaphorical culture, endogenous development, home-school cooperation, and technology adoption and acceptance, this study implements a family intergenerational learning (FIL) project. FIL characterizes learning between grandparents and grandchildren within the household, suggesting a more practical and individualized strategy to help rural older adults gain digital literacy. By conducting a three-month FIL Project in a rural primary school class in China, the study employs a qualitative method to analyze learning records and interviews from 10 sets of participating grandparents and grandchildren. The analysis renders two critical findings on the effectiveness of the FIL Project for rural older adults. First, FIL can help rural older adults adapt into the digital world by (1) gaining knowledge about digital society, (2) improving their digital skills, (3) changing their lifestyles, and (4) understanding the integration between technology and society. Second, among grandchildren, FIL can cultivate an awareness of lifelong learning and their moral obligations to their grandparents. By illustrating this specific case, this study puts forward a new approach to help the older adults overcome the digital divide in rural areas.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many grandparents in China have spent more time with their grandchildren than they used to. When their adult children returned to work after a period of lockdown, many grandparents extended their roles from taking care of household tasks and looking after their grandchildren's basic needs to supervising their online learning and providing academic support. It has been a precious opportunity for both the children and their grandparents to get to know each other better and to learn from each other. During this challenging period of home learning, a Chinese initiative called the "Shaping Students' Vacation Life Project" (SSVLP), which is led by the Shanghai Municipal Institute for Lifelong Education (SMILE) of East China Normal University (ECNU), conducted a two-month project that investigated intergenerational learning between grandparents and grandchildren (IL-GP&GC) across seven primary schools located in six areas of China. They explored topics such as pandemic prevention, health and fitness, traditional culture and information literacy. Following this, the co-authors of this article conducted an interpretive inquiry to explore how the participating primary schools implemented the IL-GP&GC project, and to understand its impact. Based on in-depth interviews with 11 teachers and 7 families (including 7 grandchildren aged 7-13, and their 7 grandparents aged 60-68), four main findings emerged: (1) both generations gained more health knowledge, life skills and values; (2) the older generation changed their learning perspective and behaviours; (3) the younger generation understood their grandparents more and cultivated the concept of lifelong learning; and (4) the relationships between grandparents and grandchildren became closer.

No abstract

Family cultural capital can be defined as a series of family cultural elements that are mainly held and transmitted by parents, that can contribute to children development. Many studies reveal that the family cultural capital of the migrant works is insufficient, which exerts negative effects on the development of their children. The study focuses on exploring the relationship between parental involvement and family cultural capital. The authors selected Taoyuan migrant as a case which has conducted home-school collaboration reform for more than three years, using the methods of interview, questionnaire, and observation to get two mains findings: (1) The model of parental involvement experienced a change process from self-elimination to active-participation, in which the school played a major role. (2) When parents adopt the model of active-participation, family cultural capital changes in three main forms of activation, increasing and transformation.

Family cultural capital can be defined as a series of family cultural elements that are mainly held and transmitted by parents, that can contribute to children development. Many studies reveal that the family cultural capital of the migrant works is insufficient, which exerts negative effects on the development of their children. The study focuses on exploring the relationship between parental involvement and family cultural capital. The authors selected Taoyuan migrant as a case which has conducted home-school collaboration reform for more than three years, using the methods of interview, questionnaire, and observation to get two mains findings: (1) The model of parental involvement experienced a change process from self-elimination to active-participation, in which the school played a major role. (2) When parents adopt the model of active-participation, family cultural capital changes in three main forms of activation, increasing and transformation.