Urban Residents’ Place-Based Funds of Knowledge: An Untapped Resource in Urban Teacher Residencies

Abstract

Teachers who attended urban schools as students are uniquely positioned to understand both the structural context that urban schools operate within and the many funds of knowledge that urban students bring to school. The purpose of this study is to examine the funds of knowledge that individuals who have been students in urban schools and now wish to teach in a particular city in the northeastern United States bring to an urban teacher residency program. In this article, we describe these urban residents' funds of knowledge, and argue that residents describe an emerging place-based pedagogical content knowledge.

Classroom Management Coaching for First-Year Urban Teachers: Purpose, Design, and Implementation

“…Teachers who attended urban schools and then work in similar educational contexts often provide more empathic perspectives. Vernikoff et al (2018) argue that these teachers bring a personal understanding of the cultural context, which facilitates an asset-based mindset of students’ behaviors and decisions. Even without direct experience, the acknowledgement of race, gender, and economic inequalities could promote an inclusive and positive mindset that alleviates aspects related to disciplinary disproportionality (Carter et al, 2017; Gregory & Roberts, 2017; Howard, 2010).…”

The Imperatives of Voice and Context in the Preparation of Community Teachers: Conceptualizing Learning-To-Teach Cycles

“…It also requires that the teacher possess the skill to leverage such experiences in culturally responsive and sustaining ways as a social justice imperative (Ladson-Billings, 2014; Paris & Alim, 2014, 2017) that intentionally centers the strengths and joys present in communities of color . Community teachers must also know how to seek out and leverage the kinds of knowledge and relationships that organizations and individuals in the community have in order to critically assess their own lived experiences and strengthen their knowledge and practice (e.g., Vernikoff et al, 2022).…”