Currere and Legacy in the Context of Family Business: Towards a New Theory of Intergenerational Learning

This book presents a new conceptualization of the idea of legacy in a family business setting as an educational experience of teaching and learning between generations. Using the lived experience of the author, it combines autoethnography with a discussion on the influence of Chinese culture on family business and expectations placed on the eldest son, as well as Bill Pinar’s model of Currere, to investigate the processes around intergenerational learning. The author argues that legacy is the process of journeying to full personhood and the results of connected and collective aspirations, shifting the focus from succession that is often marked by silence and power control. The author’s approach to business as a field has transformed its strong instrumental approach into an existential orientation with self-discovery and self-creation as an ongoing process. Providing the new and innovative beginnings of a theoretical curriculum that could foster legacy processes and taking a unique and interdisciplinary approach to looking at family business and legacy, this book will be relevant to scholars and researcher of both education and business studies.