Research Summary: The evolution of shared worlds: teaching and the origins of cumulative culture

Research published in Frontiers in Education reframes cumulative culture and teaching, asserting that cultural persistence stems from recurrent interpersonal coordination rather than mere transactional information transfer. The study posits teaching as a historically specialized organization of consensual coordination that conserves and evolves cultural practices across generations.

Why it matters

This framework redefines organizational learning and capability preservation from transactional knowledge management to structural interpersonal coordination. It demonstrates that sustaining complex practices requires building shared interactive environments rather than relying solely on repository-based information transfers. Consequently, entities focusing only on data retention risk losing the foundational context necessary for continuous innovation.

Key insights

• Cumulative culture emerges through recurrent forms of coordination rooted in shared histories of living together rather than passive transmission of knowledge.
• Ways of doing, making, and relating persist and transform across generations via shared cultural practices.
• Teaching is conceptualized as an interpersonal coordination framework generating consensual domains rather than linear information dissemination.

Source

Frontiers in Education — https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2026.1977228