How Life Course Thinking Can Inform Community Education and Family Learning in Aotearoa New Zealand

This chapter argues that adopting a life-course perspective is useful in connecting evidence and policy in education for parental and intergenerational learning, and that considering the educational resources that communities have and can access is an important determinant of effective policy. Drawing on theories of socialisation and ecological systems, models are developed of relationships between families, their communities and schools based on identifying practices and activities in communities and families across early learning and schooling. These are used to examine conditions for promoting community education and learning within families in Aotearoa New Zealand in two areas of child development: literacy and self-regulation. Conditions occurring through COVID-19 lockdowns and in those created by the new contexts of internet use and digital tools are discussed. Examining these conditions underlines the usefulness of taking the life course perspective. Knowing how socialisation processes and ecological systems affect community education and learning within families contributes to policies for equitable educational outcomes for children.