Examines parent education curricula through the lens of 3 learning-and-teaching perspectives: transaction, transformation, and transmission. Parent education models that teach particular skills, knowledge, and attitude most closely reflect the transaction curriculum perspective, in which learning is an inquiry process wherein learners and educators co-direct and co-participate. Models that address practical problems or continuing concerns in families most closely reflect the transformation curriculum perspective, in which knowledge is assumed to be fluid rather than static, enriched by multiple perspectives, and containing personal meaning. Models that focus on conveying a particular skill employ the transmission model. A number of commonalities pervade the different curriculum perspectives, including a sincere desire among curriculum developers to enhance parents’ abilities to continue their learning and change processes on their own outside of the framework of parent education. The transformation perspective puts parents in the role of directing their own learning, whereas parents in a transmission-oriented program may learn the intended skills, but be less able to apply their learning to family situation over time. The transition perspective – a less dramatic departure from the traditional transmission perspective compared to the transformation perspective – may occupy an interesting middle ground and be more readily accepted as a model.
