This paper explores the concept of knowledge as well as the process of knowledge transmission, both in general and specifically regarding engineering knowledge. This study focuses on twenty-four parents who discussed the activities that they engage in to help their children learn about engineering during hour-long interviews. The intergenerational transmission of knowledge that is described in the interviews is analyzed through 1) social structural and cultural analysis, and 2) a case study. We find that parents teach children what they perceived as engineering knowledge, which is not necessarily true but rather subjective, and believed to be a fact based on the parent's other forms of knowledge learned in the past. Understanding this will help us look at engineering education from a new perspective, and the application of this understanding could be used to help provide non-engineering parents alternative ways to support their wish to explore engineering knowledge with their children.
