Funds of Knowledge, Community Cultural Wealth, and the Forms of Capital: Strengths, Tensions, and Practical Considerations

Abstract

Funds of Knowledge (FK), Community Cultural Wealth (CCW), and Bourdieu’s analysis of capital (BAC) have each been applied in powerful ways to address complex issues of urban education; however, the overlaps and tensions between them have been largely underexplored. When brought together, these three economic metaphors—funds, wealth, capital—surface divergences and tensions that foreground questions of educational praxis and social justice. We argue the quest for social justice requires an approach that both validates and substantively utilizes learners’ FK and CCW and critically grapples with the pervasive logic of capital that has been impressed in the fabric of our educational system.