Age

The relatively small age difference between learners and pioneers is likely to be an important factor in the high level of rapport that appear to exist between them. It may also have impacted on learners’ perceptions of pioneers’ knowledge and understanding of teenage issues. 

Interestingly, however, the statement that pioneers "understand what it is like to be a young person today" drew the lowest endorsement from learners (although still a sizeable 77%), and only one learner directly referred to the age issue:

a1g "It seems as if he’s still a teenage but not"

One other learner apparently classed the pioneer as an adult, albiet an understanding one:

i5g "I’d like to learn more ‘cause it’s a big world out there which needs to be explored, so there must be a grown up who understands teens, not my mom cause she can’t understand me well"