Cognitive Negotiation at the Kitchen Table: Silence, Compromise, and Meaning Reconstruction in Lifelong Learning within Chinese Ethnic Minority Families
Sun Hua, Feng Li, Liu Rui,Shen Xiaoqing ,Chen Weilu

SiChuan Open University

Abstract

This fieldwork, conducted at the intersection of rural modernization and lifelong learning policies in a multi-ethnic county of southwestern China, documents an overlooked tension: modern knowledge entering minority households collides with existing moral-practical codes. The household becomes the primary negotiation site, yet internal coping repertoires remain unexplored. This study asks: How do family members navigate cognitive dissonance during knowledge clashes, and how does this reshape learning^s cultural situatedness?

Drawing on cognitive dissonance theory and constructivist grounded theory, I conducted interviews and participant observation across 15 households. The negotiation unfolded in three non-linear phases: (1) Dissonance perception-members vary in awareness and tacitly modulate conflict exposure- (2) Interactive coping-strategies of authority invocation, practice-led demonstration, and compromise collusion- (3) Recontextualization-external knowledge is reframed locally, reshaping family knowledge-authority structures and daily learning culture.

Theoretically, this work extends cognitive dissonance theory to cross-cultural family contexts- empirically, it challenges unidirectional educational transmission models, suggesting that effective support must engage household-level dialogues rather than override them.

Keywords: Cognitive dissonance-Ethnic minority families-Lifelong learning-Cultural adaptation-Family knowledge negotiation

Topic: Ethonopedagogy (Local Wisdom, Socio Culture)