Talking with Students Can Reveal Scientific Aspects of Cultural Knowledge: The Australian South Sea Islanders

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how talking with children can provide an awareness of the 'funds of knowledge' (Moll et al., 1992) that they bring with them to school. These funds of knowledge represent cultural knowledge, and at times this knowledge can be scientific in nature, in this instance, in the domain of biology. The paper outlines research recently conducted by the author that: (1) employs linguistic analysis to examine and analyse the talk of a young girl from a culturally diverse background, in a way which gives insight into her cultural scientific knowledge; (2) explores an adult's ability to collaborate with the student in pursuit of the topic; and, (3) offers some suggestions for using these funds of knowledge in educational contexts. It is argued that cultural differences in 'funds of knowledge' must be recognised and built on if we are to achieve multicultural science curricula that are genuinely 'two-way', as this term is understood by Malcolm (1995).