Mead's taxonomy of post-figurative, co-figurative, and pre-figurative cultures explains how accelerating change reverses the direction of learning¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 3 claims (3 for) · 2 studies (1 review, 1 theoretical), q1 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The report presents Mead's three-part cultural taxonomy for characterizing how knowledge passes between generations. In post-figurative cultures children learn from adults as models of the future; in co-figurative cultures peers learn from peers; in pre-figurative culture, which Mead dated to around 1969, "the elders had to learn how to incorporate what the young had learned but which they had not." The report presents this as Mead's account of a generation gap unique in involving the whole world, introducing a new element into education.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• The taxonomy applies to societies characterized by rapid, worldwide change in which the young acquire experiences their elders have not had

Constraints¶

• The report attributes the taxonomy to Mead's 1974 retrospective writing, not to an empirical test

Target Learners¶

• children and youth in rapidly changing societies
• adults and elders responsible for educating the young

Target Learning Objectives¶

• understanding intergenerational cultural transmission and adaptation to rapid change

Claims¶

• Mead observed that rapid change makes yesterday's knowledge useless, requiring education to teach coping with change rather than fixed content [+W]
• Mead argued education functions as a mechanism of social and cultural change, not only cultural transmission [+W]
• Mead holds that the process of acquiring changes the thing acquired, making change of subject matter the rule [+W]

Related Theories¶

• Mead's four-phase framework groups high school students by readiness, protection needs, and responsibility rather than age alone

Examples¶

• Balance vertical transmission with lateral transmission so all members of society continually learn from new discoveries

Key Sources¶

• Monroe, Suzanne S. (1992). Margaret Mead: Anthropological Perspective on Educational Change. ERIC Document ED 356 168. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED356168