Visitor Studies

“We Always Spend Time Together on Sundays”: How Grandparents and Their Grandchildren Think About and Use Informal Learning Spaces

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DOI:: 10.1080/10645570701585129

Camellia Sanford^a, Karen Knutson^a & Kevin Crowley^a

pages 136-151

Available online: 17 Oct 2007

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ABSTRACT

This study compared grandparent–grandchild groups who experienced an informal science exhibition by visiting a museum or by visiting a website. Although intergenerational learning is often the focus of visitor research, few studies have focused specifically on grandparents as an audience. Do they have unique intergenerational needs that museums and websites are not yet supporting? Do they find museums and websites to be good places to learn alongside their grandchildren? The authors' findings suggested that grandparents prefer museums as locations for intergenerational learning because the museum environment is more supportive of social engagement in ways that allow grandparents to accomplish their own visiting agendas. In contrast, the web appeared to introduce conflict between grandparent and grandchild agendas.