Abstract, This article explores the ways in which parents use their own past experiences as a mediational tool for understanding their child’s current school learning. Following a sociocultural approach parents’ past experiences were examined drawing on the notions of (1) heterochronicity, which looks at the partially overlapping histories of the individual and society and (2) prolepsis whereby the imagined future mediates and constrains the world of the present. The analysis draws on 22 interviews with parents whose children were from three primary multiethnic schools in a town in the Southeast of England. The findings brought to light the means by which parents can either intentionally or unintentionally use the past to inform their current representations and practices. Thus at times they use their past experiences to mediate internalisation (reproduction of the experience), at other times they use them to promote externalisation (change brought about by the experience). It is within this process that parents projected a future ideal for their child, which was either congruent or discordant with their own past.

Cet article explore les façons que les parents ont d’utiliser leurs propres expériences passées comme des outils médiateurs pour la compréhension de l’apprentissage scolaire de leurs enfants. Suivant une approche socio-culturelle les expériences des parents ont été examinés à partir des notions de (1) hétérochronicité, considérant les histoires partiellement superposées des individus et de la société, et (2) prolepsis, par lequel le futur imaginé agit comme élément médiateur et constructif du monde du présent. L’analyse se base sur 22 entrevues avec des parents d’enfants de trois écoles primaires dans une ville du sud-est de l’Angleterre. Les résultats montrent les moyens à travers lesquels les parents peuvent, soit intentionnellement ou involontairement, utiliser le passé pour façonner leurs représentations et pratiques actuelles. Ainsi, parfois ils utilisent leurs expériences passées comme médiateurs d’internalisation (reproduction de l’expérience), et dans des autres occasions, ils les utilisent pour favoriser l’externalisation (changement apporté par l’expérience). C’est par ce processus que les parents projetaient un future idéal pour leurs enfants, qui était soit congru ou discordant avec leur propre passé.

Key words: Heterochronicity, Multicultural classrooms, Prolepsis, Social mediation, Sociocultural theory.

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