Some Contemporary Forms of the Funds of Knowledge Approach. Developing Culturally Responsive Pedagogy for Social Justice

Abstract

The population of children in schools is rapidly becoming more ethnically and culturally diverse. However, there is a mismatch between the cultures in children’s homes and the cultures in their schools. The funds of knowledge approach emerged in Tucson (Arizona, USA) in order to counter the deficit perspectives common in depictions of working-class, Latin American families. In this paper we critically report on two contemporary research projects conducted around funds of knowledge and social justice pedagogy. In particular, this paper describes and discusses two projects, which have been conducted in schools with disadvantaged students in USA (Latino students in Arizona) and Australia (students with low socio-economic status, from diverse ethnic groups), examining how these projects exemplify social justice pedagogy. Both projects reviewed explore the application of a funds of knowledge approach, in which students focus on a key aspect of their identity and living circumstances and investigate it, seeking to understand the current situation and create positive options for possible improvements.

‘It’s not fantasy storybooks’: The funds of identity approach in creating storybooks for deaf pupils

“…Di sekolah, guru boleh mengenal pasti identiti dana murid melalui kaedah-kaedah seperti potret diri melalui lukisan identiti oleh murid itu sendiri (Bagnoli, 2009), diari peribadi (Esteban-Guitart, 2012), video (Esteban-Guitart & Moll, 2014), puisi (Subero et al, 2015), avatar (Poole, 2017), foto (Marsh & Zhulamanova, 2016) atau peta (Moulton, 2018). Kaedah-kaedah tersebut mengutamakan peranan murid dalam mengekspresikan identiti mereka melalui pelbagai bentuk artifak yang boleh digunakan guru dalam usaha mereka bentuk bahan pengajaran yang bermakna (Esteban-Guitart, 2016).…”

“…Sementara itu, bagi pembinaan buku-buku cerita tentang 'identiti dana gelap' yang boleh memberi kesan atau emosi terhadap murid, saya berpendapat bahawa guru perlu cakna dalam meneliti personaliti murid, penerimaan murid terhadap cerita, dan bersedia dengan cara soal jawab serta penyampaian pengajaran yang bersesuaian supaya tidak terlalu menyentuh sensitiviti atau emosi murid. Dalam situasi tersebut, penceritaan yang berkaitan rapat dengan identiti dana gelap adalah sesuatu cabaran yang perlu difahami dan bukannya dielakkan disebabkan isu tersebut berkaitan dengan kesukaran yang dialami murid (Subero et al, 2015).…”

Pupil diversity in teacher preparation curriculum

“…Diversity denotes a neutral concept that is an inevitable reflection of the diversity of human society (Educating Teachers for Diversity, 2010). In addition to demographical descriptors such as culture, ethnicity, language, socioeconomic status, gender and religion, the pupil diversity concept embraces personal characteristics, abilities and skills (Banks & Banks, 2010;Kaur, 2012;Subero, Vila & Esteban-Guitart, 2015).…”