Curricula and pedagogic potentials when educating diverse students in higher education: students’Funds of Knowledgeas a bridge to disciplinary learning

Abstract

Phone: +61 3 9919 8365Angela Daddow is a Lecturer in Social Work at Victoria University, Australia. With post graduate qualifications in Social Work and Education, her expertise includes practitioner and senior management roles and academic positions in both fields. Her research interests include higher education curriculum design, teaching and learning for diversity, transformational pedagogy and education for sustainability. 2Curricula and pedagogic potentials when educating diverse students in higher education: Students' Funds of Knowledge as a bridge to disciplinary learning. AbstractWith the massification of higher education in a knowledge-driven economy, Western universities have struggled to keep pace with the cultural, linguistic, educational and economic diversity of university students and the complex realities of their life-worlds.This has generated systemic inequities for diverse or 'non-traditional' students, and left academics with pedagogic uncertainty. This paper reports on action research that examined curricular and pedagogic practices that made elite academic codes explicit, and utilised students' Funds of Knowledge as assets for disciplinary learning, in an Australian University. The action research confirmed the potential of creating bridges between the cultural practices and literacies of diverse students and the acquisition of disciplinary knowledge, facilitating their negotiation of multiple literacies and the successful participation of all students. Institutional arrangements -governed by economic, cultural and socio-political conditions -that enabled and constrained these potentials were highlighted, suggesting areas for negotiation for the pedagogies' ongoing and wider use.

Articulating identities and analyzing belonging: a multistep intervention that affirms and informs a diversity of students

“…This approach complements recent discussions of utilizing students' funds of knowledge as assets for disciplinary learning (Daddow 2016) by using those sources for co-creation and for education regarding identities as well.…”

La dimensión pedagógica de la equidad en educación superior

“…También en Australia se registra la experiencia de una universidad que diseñó propuestas pedagógicas y curriculares para reducir la brecha cultural que viven estudiantes no tradicionales y ampliar sus oportunidades para aprender, por medio de la integración del desarrollo de literacidad en el trabajo disciplinar (Daddow, 2016). Los cursos son impartidos por un profesor de la disciplina y una educadora del área de apoyo de lenguaje y aprendizaje académico, quienes promueven las prácticas de literacidad a partir de conversaciones, textos y ejercicios experienciales e identifican los fondos de conocimiento del alumnado para vincularlos con las prácticas y los valores disciplinares.…”

“…La experiencia destaca la importancia de crear puentes entre las prácticas culturales y las alfabetizaciones de diversos estudiantes y la adquisición de conocimiento disciplinario. Las dificultades registradas refieren a las restricciones impuestas por los sistemas institucionales, los recursos limitados y la misma complejidad que presenta el espacio de enseñanza contemporáneo (Daddow, 2016). Un desafío adicional que demandó una fuerte inversión de tiempo y atención pedagógica, fue generar la confianza suficiente entre estudiantes no tradicionales para que abrieran y mostraran sus mundos de vida, pues consideraban que estos no tenían cabida en la universidad.…”

“Context matters”: The challenges and opportunities of designing tertiary public and environmental health education in South Auckland

“…Therefore, the shifts in teaching and learning pedagogy that focus on collaboration, co-design and giving a voice to under-served members of society, sit well with collaborative research methodologies. This approach has been found in a number of studies to balance traditional power relations inherent in the university context, recognising the leadership potential of all participants, irrespective of age and status (Samuelson, Smith, Stevenson, & Ryan, 2013;Livingstone, Celemencki, & Calixte, 2014;Goldstein, Ick, Ratang, Hutajulu, & Blesia, 2016;Daddow, 2016). The approach of encouraging the sharing of knowledge, power and control through the processes of reciprocity and feedback as a partnership principle towards achieving a common interest would therefore be embedded within the framework.…”

“…In Aotearoa New Zealand, the recent Productivity Commission report highlighted the learning and teaching challenges for Māori and Pacific students, those from low deprivation areas and mature students who are seeking to reskill in a time of shifting employment prospects (New Zealand Productivity Commission, 2017). Internationally, the awareness of this disadvantage has fuelled calls for culturally responsive pedagogy (Goldstein, Ick, Ratang, Hutajulu, & Blesia, 2016), with the importance of taking this into account in curriculum design (Daddow, 2016). This also aligns with arguments for "socially responsive" curricula (Torres & Moraes, 2006, p. 348) which maintains that education should be among other things "grounded in the lives of students", "critical" and focus on social justice (Torres & Moraes, 2006 , 2014).…”