“I want to be a furious leopard with magical wings and super power”: Developing an ethico-interpretive framework for detecting Chinese students’ funds of identity

A Synthesis of Funds of Identity Research: Purposes, Tools, Pedagogical Approaches, and Outcomes

“…Subero et al (2017) pointed out the relationship between the FoK and FoI approaches and theoretical perspectives that see learning as knowledge creation , instead of transmission of fixed knowledge (Paavola et al, 2004). A case in point is the idea of prospective education (Kozulin, 1998), which emphasizes collaboration and development of new competencies, knowledge and understandings (Poole, 2017b). Another theoretical notion that FoI is closely related to is educational contextualization (Llopart & Esteban-Guitart, 2017), which means linking curricular content (e.g., literacy, science, mathematics, social sciences) with students’ lives, including prior learning experiences from their homes and communities (Tharp et al, 2000).…”

“…Existential FoI may include “problematic circumstances, such as being suspended from school, exam pressure, or falling out with a friend, as well as more personal issues to do with identity and belonging” (Poole & Huang, 2018, p. 129). Additionally, Poole (2017b) proposed the category of “ideological” FoI, defined as “political, cultural or religious beliefs” (p. 8), such as “patriotism . .…”

“…Some authors focused on nonacademic outcomes, more closely related to identity development. They discussed how drawing on students’ FoI can expand and amplify students’ identities (Subero et al, 2017) or foster development of new identities (Poole, 2017b). Esteban-Guitart and Moll (2014a) referred to the concept of zone of proximal identity development (Polman, 2010).…”

“…Charteris et al (2016) promoted e-assessment for learning. However, Poole (2017a, 2017b) actually applied digital tools in empirical FoI research. Initially, he theoretically explored the idea of having students design an avatar as an FoI text (Poole, 2017a).…”

Re-theorising the funds of identity concept from the perspective of subjectivity

“…Funds of identity was developed by Esteban-Guitart (2016) and has been employed by researchers and practitioners in order to valorise and mobilise the identities of minoritised students 2 in educational settings for social justice purposes. The first concept is dark funds of identity (Charteris, Thomas & Masters, 2018), defined as the difficult experiences that individuals bring with them to make sense of theoretical concepts in the classroom, and the second (the focus of this paper) is existential funds of identity (Poole, 2017;Poole & Huang, 2018), defined as the positive and negative experiences that adolescent learners develop and appropriate in order to define themselves and to grow as human beings.…”