Mobility and Learning Through Tourism: Touristic Learning of Children During Family Travels

Abstract

The perspective of mobile learning research has transitioned from using mobile technology for education to learning as a human and non-human practice surrounding mobility. This study exemplifies tourism in an increasingly mobile society as a mobile learning practice. Specifically, the learning of children during family travels and the mutual organization of human and non-human interactions are emphasized. Interviews with twelve Japanese parents revealed that children’s touristic learning encompassed the translation of various actors in tourist destinations and the spatiotemporal creation of a knowledge network different than that of settled areas and textbooks. Family tourism suspended cultural norms by moving children to boundaries, enabling them to learn beyond the usual constraints. Moreover, this article contends that children’s learning through tourism comprised negotiations with parents before tourism, accidental learning along the way, and reconfiguration of life afterward.