Funds Of Knowledge Approach Research Articles

Supporting social inclusion of refugees: a funds of knowledge approach

ABSTRACT In recent times, the world has seen an unprecedented increase in the number of refugees seeking asylum and refuge from war, conflict, and persecution. This study focuses on five refugee children in Malaysia and how their knowledge, skills, and lived experiences could be harnessed to support their education, well-being, and social inclusion. The study adopts a Funds of Knowledge (FoK) approach, which capitalises on an individual’s knowledge, skills, experiences and practices to support one’s well-being. Data comprised observations of the refugees both in and out of school, interviews with the refugees and their parents/guardians, and artefacts. Collected over an approximately one-year period, the data were coded to identify the FoK that could be used to support the refugees’ learning, well-being, and social inclusion. Five main FoK types centred on Interest, Literacy Practice, Family, Religion and Aspiration were identified. The paper concludes with a discussion of the ways in which FoK can be viewed as a viable approach to facilitate the education and social integration of refugees in Malaysia and beyond.

Exploring the notion of inclusivity as facilitating students' ontological engagement for personally relevant learning

AbstractIn India, inclusivity in education can be seen as an expression of commitment to social justice. It reflects a deep commitment to the goals of universalisation of education promoted by world agencies such as UNESCO. However, pitched between the aspirational goals of achieving equity and social justice on one hand, and the economic imperative of a competitive market on the other, inclusivity in education seems an ever‐elusive goal. Students' voices and all the cultural and experiential resources they hold, are marginalised in school, contributing to alienating students from school learning. The study on which this article reports sought to support teachers glean insights from participation in a purposive modelling activity, set in a Vygotskian dialectic frame of reference. The activity focused on how learning from students and their communities can be harnessed to engage students ontologically in class, to enhance students' agentive role in an inclusive learning environment. It is rooted in a funds of knowledge approach. The qualitative data for this ethnographically oriented study have been gathered from multiple sources over 2 years and analysed thematically. The findings show that modelling not only helped teacher learning and development of practice, but also familiarised teachers with issues of equity and inclusivity. Notably, by making teachers aware of the differentiated needs of all the students in the process of invoking their unique contribution to learning from their cultural locations. The insights are used to discuss the challenges posed for teachers in making their new learning part of their teaching practice.

Latin American Mothers’ First-Hand Accounts of a Statewide Early Intervention Model: A Funds of Knowledge Approach

Latin American families’ history and life experiences impact the priorities and values the families have for their children with disabilities. It may be beneficial for early intervention (EI) providers to explore and integrate Latin American families’ backgrounds to improve EI services. We completed a qualitative interview study using a collective case study analysis to (a) learn about Latin American families’ parenting values and (b) explore families’ experiences with a statewide early intervention model. Three mothers with young children who had received EI services completed two interviews. We found that each family had unique histories, compositions, support networks, and priorities that impacted their experiences with a statewide coaching model. Families revealed how their funds of knowledge were, at times, integrated into the EI they received. Our study describes a valuable method of learning about Latin American families’ cultural backgrounds so that EI providers may sustain families’ cultures within the services they provide.

Learning from Central American migrant children in‐transit within Mexico: A funds of knowledge approach

AbstractMigration can have long‐term impacts on children's well‐being, identity, academic aspirations and success. Children's voices, however, are often absent from educational scholarship and practice. Employing participatory storytelling methods, this study explores what informal learnings or ‘funds of knowledge’ Honduran children develop while in‐transit within Mexico. The findings present how children cared for their communities, used technology to develop transnational interests and ties, developed complex understandings of global culture and expanded on understandings of geography and space. Migration is posed as a process through which children develop a wealth of knowledge, calling upon educators to bring these learnings into educational contexts.

The Funds of Knowledge Approach: An Opportunity to Access Education for Ethnic Minority Students in Vietnam

The funds of knowledge approach has been increasingly studied and applied to teaching practices in many developed countries. Learning about students’ funds of knowledge and incorporation into their learning enables teachers to increase relevant learning experiences, empowering a socio-constructivist approach to teaching and learning. It is acknowledged to help students learn meaningfully by connecting lessons to students’ funds of knowledge, especially to ethnic minority students, color, immigrant students, or disadvantaged students. However, there is a lack of studies and papers on the funds of knowledge approach in education in Vietnam. This article aims to introduce this educational approach and contribute to solving the challenges that ethnic minority education in Vietnam is facing. The article also suggests further studies to promote the application of the Funds of knowledge approach in Vietnam, thereby improving the quality of ethnic minority education in Vietnam and value the cultural resources, languages, and local knowledge of ethnic minority groups in Vietnam.
 

Funds of knowledge and agentic strategies of three- and four-year-old children in South Africa

In South Africa, little is known about the funds of knowledge of young children, and how they use this resource to affirm their agency in early childhood centres to build their childhood experiences. With this article we contribute knowledge through exploring the strategies that young children use to show their agency and thereby their funds of knowledge in a marginalised context. The funds of knowledge approach is helpful for illuminating meaning-making endeavours that foreground agentic actions that are imaginative, creative and beyond normative expectations. The study reported on in this article was conducted in Bloemfontein, South Africa, at 4 early childhood centres. Data were obtained through observation of 30 three- and 4-year-old children. The findings suggest that young children engage in agentic strategies of avoiding, ignoring and challenging adult control, pretend-play, imitation of adults and peers, and gendered negotiations, as efforts to contest a largely teacher-controlled environment. The insights from this study contribute to the understanding of the kinds of practices in which young children routinely engage, but which are often disregarded and undervalued by teachers. The agentic imagery of children, together with intersections of other imagery, needs to be part of the knowledge mix to inform teacher development and policy on early childhood care and education of children between birth and 4 years old in South Africa.

Family engagement in the middle: Reaching out to families of English learners

At the middle school level, active family engagement is difficult enough with native English speaking families but even more so with parents of English learners (ELs). Using a funds of knowledge approach in this article, we position families as knowledgeable participants with strengths who contribute significantly to their adolescent’s academic and overall development. We provide three cases of middle grades teachers who took the initiative to engage with families of ELs. Each teacher utilized different strategies, but they ultimately all increased EL family engagement in their middle school setting. This article shows that EL families will be more engaged when strategies used are more inclusive and responsive to their needs.

Multicultural Educators as Cultural Brokers and Language Mediators

With the lack of ethnolinguistic-specific resources for U.S. teachers, this essay is written for teachers working with ethnolinguistic students at schools and in the communities. In what follows, I will focus on two expanded theoretical underpinnings of becoming multicultural educators: (1) cultural brokering as a way to cross personal and professional boundaries, and (2) using languages as mediators to support the learning of ethnolinguistic students. For the second theoretical underpinning, I offer two recommendations for achieving the goals of multicultural education: (1) adopting an anthropological Funds of Knowledge approach, and (2) working our critical awareness inside out.

Sustaining Students’ Identities within the Context of Participatory Culture. Designing, Implementing and Evaluating an Interactive Learning Activity

Within the framework of theoretical developments in so-called participatory culture and the context of funds of identity, incorporated within what is known as the funds of knowledge approach, an innovative teaching methodology is implemented that allows students to actively participate in knowledge construction. The project translates into a proposal for educational contextualization and personalization, based on the students’ funds of identity; that is, those resources (people, artifacts, places, activities, institutions) they consider to be most relevant and significant to defining themselves. Once these have been identified through identity artifacts, such as collages or self-drawings, students link some of these funds of identity to curricular content of the subject and produce a video that shows the results of this academic work. The final product is shared on a YouTube channel containing the videos of all of the students in the class. The phases of the project are described and illustrated. We argue that the proposed teaching and learning project, which is cross-disciplinary in nature, allows for principles such as educational contextualization, funds of identity and participatory culture to be incorporated into what we call here the funds of identity 2.0 approach, putting it into educational practice.

A funds of knowledge approach to promoting school engagement

Research shows that the exclusion of families’ funds of knowledge (FoK) from the curriculum contributes to low levels of school engagement. This study is part of an ongoing research project aiming to promote school engagement among students from immigrant backgrounds through the strategic use of FoK. We provide an overview of the project design and explain how it has been implemented in the specific context of early childhood education in a school in Catalonia. A qualitative approach is used to assess the effect of the process from the teacher perspective, contrasting positive aspects with some of the difficulties experienced. We conclude that including families’ FoK in pedagogical practice can contribute towards improving student engagement and fostering more inclusive educational environments.

¿Pueden contribuir los fondos de conocimiento a la participación de las familias gitanas en la escuela? Bases para un proyecto educativo

El enfoque de los Fondos de Conocimiento, cuyo origen antropológico se remonta al estudio de las relaciones de confianza entre hogares mexicanos constituidos en la frontera con los EE. UU., se ha consolidado en muchos países como un modelo efectivo para el trabajo con familias en riesgo de exclusión social. Se trata de recoger los recursos culturales familiares para convertirlos en saberes susceptibles de ser incorporados en la escuela. El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo estudiar los Fondos de Conocimiento como marco teórico para el diseño de programas socioeducativos, que fomenten la implicación de las familias gitanas en la educación de sus hijos. Para ello, utilizamos una metodología de carácter descriptivo a partir del análisis de los principales estudios teóricos llevados a cabo sobre esta temática tanto a nivel nacional como internacional, concretamente en Norteamérica, donde este enfoque ya cuenta con una trayectoria reconocida. De los resultados se deriva la idoneidad de los Fondos de Conocimiento de las familias gitanas como base para el diseño de propuestas de educación inclusiva que promuevan la implicación de estas en la educación de sus hijos favoreciendo con ello sus posibilidades de éxito educativo. Bajo esta lógica, ha de tenerse en cuenta el respeto por la historia y la incorporación de sus voces en el ideario político y social, en aras de mejorar las relaciones entre familia y escuela, y con ello, el rendimiento académico del alumnado, reconociendo su papel como sujetos de derechos, con la finalidad de fomentar una mayor inclusión de la comunidad gitana en los centros escolares.

Language Hegemonies and their Discontents: History, Theory, Bilingualism, and Funds of Knowledge

This article reviews hegemonic impositions of language and culture over the history of the Southwest North American Region, beginning with Spanish imperial attempts to erase the existing linguistic and cultural practices of Indigenous communities. It goes on to consider the educational processes by which English language and American culture were imposed on Mexican American children and communities following the American Mexican War. Along with hegemonic attempts to subdue and dominate populations, the article also explores the myriad ways subjugated populations have expressed their discontent, from violent revolt to the creation of alternative educational programs. With reference to the latter, given the well-attested benefits of bilingualism, it is argued that one way to capitalize on the cultural and linguistic capacities of transborder populations is to integrate dual-language education and a funds of knowledge approach. Engagement in Mexican-origin children’s social networks will help educators to counter the process of cultural erasure and to ensure that bilingual programs benefit language-minority students, and not just middle-class, English-dominant students. Without support for Mexican-origin and other Latino/a students to emerge fully as complex cultural beings, we will continue to perpetuate a situation of linguistic and cultural hegemony where populations are restricted from their full human potential.

The Role of the Study Group in the Funds of Knowledge Approach

ABSTRACTThis article explores the role of the study group in the funds of knowledge approach as implemented in a public school located in Catalonia, Spain. In particular, we describe the funds of knowledge uncovered during home visits to the families of 5 students selected by the teachers and the process by which the teachers developed educational activities using some of these funds of knowledge. We argue that the study group can be seen as a community of practice and as a mediational structure between students’ households and the school—a process referred to here as an “intercontextual mediation.”

Teachers’ perceptions of the benefits, limitations, and areas for improvement of the funds of knowledge approach. A qualitative study

Within the broad range of literature on the funds of knowledge approach, several positive impacts have been documented. In particular, participating teachers have reported meaningful changes in their relationships with students’ families as a consequence of the home visits. However, few studies have assessed the limitations of the approach, or areas for improvement. Hence, the aim of the study described here was to identify what teachers felt were the strengths and the weaknesses of the approach and to record their proposals for improvements. The teachers involved had participated in all phases of the program: from the initial training to the creation and implementation of educational activities based on the funds of knowledge identified from home visits. The positive aspects identified include improved family–school relationships; a better understanding of student behavior and attitudes, and the support of their colleagues and the University staff in the context of the study group created.

Strategies and resources for contextualising the curriculum based on the funds of knowledge approach: a literature review

This article aims to describe and illustrate how the curriculum can be contextualised through different educational experiences based on the funds of knowledge approach. Educational contextualisation is understood to be the linking of curricular content (literacy, science, mathematics, social sciences) with students’ lives, including prior learning experiences from their homes and communities. The literature review began by surveying 59 articles retrieved from the ERIC database after entering the search terms “funds of knowledge” and “teaching methods”. Out of these, 22 peer reviewed papers were selected based on the following criteria: the paper should illustrate how artefacts produced by students (photographs, texts, artistic productions, digital stories) can be put to pedagogical use by turning them into resources to mobilise knowledge and experiences inside and outside school. The results are discussed in light of the CREDE Standards for Effective Pedagogy, as well as the notion of funds of identity, which has been proposed recently within the context of the funds of knowledge approach.

Follow the leader: attending to the curriculum making potential of preschoolers

ABSTRACTThis research focused on making visible children’s funds of identity [Esteban-Guitart, M., & Moll, L. (2014). Funds of identity: A new concept based on the funds of knowledge approach. Culture & Psychology, 20(1), 31–48] and incorporating these resources into an inquiry-oriented, play-based, preschool curriculum. Participants in this collaborative action research included 4 co-investigators, 36 children aged 3–5 from diverse backgrounds, and 8 focal children and their parents/guardians. Data were gathered through observations, digital photographs, and photo-elicitation interviews. Through visual narratives and conversations guided by the children, the research team gained greater insight into children’s interests and the knowledge they bring with them from home into school. We came to recognize that our perspectives of the children’s interests and knowledge were limited by our inability to see their curriculum making potential and by our hesitation to offer the curriculum the children desire.

Transforming teacher–family relationships: shifting roles and perceptions of home visits through the Funds of Knowledge approach

Education has embraced the idea of an ‘asset approach’ to working with families and children, creating a focus on developing collaborative relationships with families by building on what they bring to the table. In this paper we explore what happened when early childhood teachers entered homes to learn from families and identify their Funds of Knowledge. The findings show how issues of power and perception surfaced when teachers attempted to shift their role from that of teacher to learner. In analyzing teachers’ experience before, during, and after ethnographic home visits we saw their general desire to adopt an asset-based mentality. However, the hegemonic structure of schooling, previous experiences, and traditional teachers’ roles shaped their experience with the Funds of Knowledge framework. We end by discussing the implications for teachers and teacher educators who are interested in using home visits to develop an asset approach to their work with families.

Keystone characteristics that support cultural resilience in Karen refugee parents

This participatory action research study used the conceptual framework of social–ecological resilience to explore how Karen (pronounced Ka·ren) refugee parents re-construct cultural resilience in resettlement. The funds of knowledge approach helped to define essential knowledge used by Karen parents within their own community. Framing this study around the concept of resilience situated it within an emancipatory paradigm: refugee parents were actors choosing their own cultural identity and making decisions about what cultural knowledge was important for the science education of their children. Sustainability science with its capacity to absorb indigenous knowledge as legitimate scientific knowledge offered a critical platform for reconciling Karen knowledge with scientific knowledge for science education. Photovoice, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews were used to create visual and written narrative portraits of Karen parents. Narrative analysis revealed that Karen parents had constructed a counter-narrative in Burma and Thailand that enabled them to resist assimilation into the dominant ethnic culture; by contrast, their narrative of life in resettlement in the U.S. focused on the potential for self-determination. Keystone characteristics that contributed to cultural resilience were identified to be the community garden and education as a gateway to a transformed future. Anchored in a cultural tradition of farming, these Karen parents gained perspective and comfort in continuity and the potential of self-determination rooted in the land. Therefore, a cross-cultural learning community for Karen elementary school students that incorporates the Karen language and Karen self-sustaining knowledge of horticulture would be an appropriate venue for building a climate of reciprocity for science learning.

Young children learning about well-being and environmental education in the early years: a funds of knowledge approach

Early childhood educators currently provide content focused learning opportunities for children in the areas of well-being and environmental education. However, these are usually seen as discrete content areas and educators are challenged with responding to children’s interests in popular-culture inspired food products given these influence their consumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor and highly packaged food in the early childhood setting. This paper reports preliminary findings from a pilot randomised trial examining the interconnectedness of sustainability, well-being and popular-culture in early childhood education. Planning, assessment documentation and summaries from twenty-four learning experiences implemented by six educators over a six-week period were analysed using a deductive approach. Twenty well-being and environmental education topics were identified and shown to be generated by the educators when considering the children’s ‘funds of knowledge’ on popular-culture inspired food products. We argue that topics derived from children’s engagement with popular-culture may help educators to create an integrated approach to curriculum provision. This may impact child weight and facilitate obesity prevention and environmental sustainability as children create stronger connections between these content areas and their everyday choices and practices.

Compelling Counternarratives to Deficit Discourses: An Investigation into the Funds of Knowledge of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse U.S. Elementary Students’ Households

This study focused on household funds of knowledge or “historically accumulated bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household functioning and well-being” (Gonzalez, Andrade, Civil, & Moll, 2001). A Funds of Knowledge approach provides both a methodological and theoretical lens for educators to understand both themselves and their students in more complex ways. Participants included five culturally, economically, and linguistically diverse students and their families. The study setting was a middle- and working-class first-ring suburb in the Midwestern United States. Data collection included visits to home, church, and Sunday school settings; observations in Language Arts classroom settings; and informal conversations and ethnographic semi-structured interviews with students, parents, and teachers. Data sources included interview transcripts; fieldnotes and reflections on those fieldnotes; and data collected from each student’s school cumulative folder. I coded parent and child interview and home visit data to create a multifaceted portrait of each household. Findings reveal that households possess a breadth and variety of resources, skills, bodies of knowledge, and strengths. These findings provide compelling counterevidence to deficit discourses by demonstrating that these households possess valuable knowledge and experiences.