Continuity of Learning: adding funds of knowledge from the home environment

Abstract

In comparison to previous generations, families these days are leading increasingly complex lives. Children often have a diversity of experiences from various learning communities before they begin school. For example, they may have been involved in one or more early childhood settings before moving on to school, where they join the new community of the school; and they have the of the home community, which may or may not involve an extended family. They may be involved in cultural, sporting, artistic, and/or spiritual communities. A child may be involved in many communities each week, or may a number of different communities over a period of time. This can be referred to as the multidimensionality of student experience (Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, 2005, p. 6). Some of these communities may be very similar to each other--for example, involvement in a spiritual community may in many ways require of activities similar to those practised at home. Some communities may be very disparate; for example, a swimming lesson may operate very differently from a play group and have a different set of expectations and modes of participation. The constant factor, however, is the mediating one of the family. This article explores the families have of their child and the importance for teachers, families, and the child of sharing this knowledge. Funds of In their book Funds of Knowledge Norma Gonzales, Luis Moll, and Cathy Amanti define of knowledge as being based on a simple premise: People are competent, they have knowledge, and their life experiences have given them that knowledge (2005, p. ix). Gonzales et al. focus on developing reciprocal relationships with families, in part to identify the knowledge, skills, and experiences of families that could be shared with the to enhance classroom practice and students' learning: [a] funds of approach facilitates a systematic and powerful way to represent communities in terms of resources, the wherewithal they possess, and how to harness these resources for classroom teachers (p. x). As well as viewing a family's skills and as resources the teacher can tap into, it is also possible to see the family as a mediating factor in terms of the child's interactions with the various learning communities the child is involved in (as shown in Figure 1). This view highlights the necessity of developing reciprocal and responsive relationships between the family and the centre or classroom. In this framework the family can be seen as a pivotal point and constant frame of reference for the child. At any one time a child is a participant in many communities, not just one. It is the family, as the mediating factor, that has the of the child's of these things. Communities of practice When we look more closely at the child's of, and between, these communities, a useful concept is Etienne Wenger's (1998) definition of a community of practice as a living context that can give newcomers access to competence and also invite a personal of engagement by which to incorporate that competence into an identity of (p. 214). Children come to an early childhood centre or school with varying experiences of participation. Each of the communities they have been a part of may have functioned in entirely different ways, with a multitude of different foci. How they have approached these different settings and how their sense of belonging, engagement, and participation has developed are important indicators for a teacher in deciding how to scaffold and bridge a child's entry into, and learning within, any community of learning. Once again, it is often the family that holds this information. Reciprocal relationships In their exploration of funds of Gonzales et al. (2005) found that once the relationship level of the communication between parents and becomes more reciprocal . …