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Abstract
A fifth-grade environmental education program in rural Colorado served as a case study to examine how and what teacher-parents (i.e., parents who are also k-12 teachers) learn about the environment from their children and how environmental education (EE) programs can best promote intergenerational learning. Interviews were conducted with two teacher-parents and one former principal and elemental coding methods were used to draw hypotheses from interview data. Interview data and established theory support three hypotheses: (1) the success of intergenerational learning from an EE program relies on a stable network of communication between the parents, students, school, and EE program; (2) intergenerational learning is greatest when students feel a responsibility and power to share their knowledge of an emotionally stimulating subject; and (3) to promote intergenerational learning, an EE program must operate with specific goals of transferring knowledge from students to parents. Suggestions are made to modify an existing EE program that seeks to promote knowledge transfer from children to parents.