Cultural Transmission and Inter-generational Interaction

A number of educationists have attacked the concept of cultural transmission as being unable to cover adequately the complex process of interaction that takes place in education. This attack poses a serious challenge to educational research, which generally assumes that cultural transmission has an important place in the educational process. Should this assumption prove to be unfounded, the foundations of educational research would be undermined. This article defends the concept of cultural transmission against the three main criticisms that have been levelled against it, and concludes that it remains a valuable one for educational researchers.