Using cultural tools to develop scientific literacy of young Mexican American preschoolers

PBL in the Era of Reform Standards: Challenges and Benefits Perceived by Teachers in One Elementary School

“…A challenge for teachers is to take relatively abstract NGSS standards and identify real community problems for students to address. Researcherpractitioners who tap into a community's funds of knowledge through home visits and community walkabouts illustrate a strategy for teachers to use in identifying how to design powerful PBL units that take into account student and community funds of knowledge (González, Moll, & Amanti, 1995;Moll et al, 1992;Riojas-Cortez et al, 2008;Street, 2005;Sugarman, 2010).…”

ConfirmingChanclas: What Early Childhood Teacher Educators Can Learn From Immigrant Preschool Teachers

“…Because early childhood education in the U.S. is currently centered on ideals such that educating young children means paying attention to their development and taking into account the unique characteristics of young children, teachers in the early childhood centers like the preschools in our study spoke frequently about constructivist principles (Braun & Edwards, 1972 study, what children do in preschool is part of their social, emotional, and physical development (Reifel & Brown, 2001;Riojas-Cortez, Huerta, Flores, Perez, & Clark, 2008). Art, in this sense, could not be wrong because it is an expression of a child who is learning who she is and about the world around her.…”

Power and Agency in Education

“…This illuminates the need for addressing the power relations that exist among teachers and students, as well as with respect to students' families and home communities. A variety of tandem theories are represented amid these studies, including third space theories that point to the hybridity of knowledge production processes that are neither exclusively school-nor community-based but recontextualized by students as a result of more inclusive learning opportunities provided via the FoK approach (Calabrese Barton & Tan, 2009;Fitts, 2009;Hammond, 2001;Moje et al, 2004;Smythe & Toohey, 2009); critical literacy theories that combine with FoK approaches to increase the consciousness of teachers (and students) toward multiple forms of literacy and facilitate students' ability to "read the world" (Camangian, 2010;Fisher, 2006;Freire, 1970Freire, /1993Keis, 2006;Pirbhai-Illich, 2010;Rogers et al, 2004;Street, 2005); sociocultural theories that are linked to the potency of FoK approaches to bring situated and socially mediated learning into relief, particularly for preservice or novice teachers and parents of preschool-age children (Dantas, 2007;Monzo & Rueda, 2003;Nathenson-Mejia & Escamilla, 2003;Riojas-Cortez, 2001;Riojas-Cortez & Flores Bustos, 2009;Riojas-Cortez et al, 2008;Wang, Bernas, & Eberhard, 2005); and social justice and community empowerment theories that link FoK practices to broader critical consciousness imperatives involving the reformulation of social arrangements and the fostering of interdependence among community members (Henderson & Zipin, 2010;Kurtyka, 2010;Sugarman, 2010;Upadhyay, 2009;Zipin & Reid, 2008;Zipin et al, 2012).…”