Family Lessons and Funds of Knowledge: College-Going Paths in Mexican American Families (original) (raw)
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Theory Into Practice, 1992
We form part of a collaborative project between education and anthropology that is studying household and classroom practices within working-class, Mexican communities in Tucson, Arizona. The primary purpose of this work is to develop innovations in teaching that draw ...
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This article summarizes research conducted by a teacher researcher in a workingclass community. The participants included 10 Latino students, five parents, and five teachers. This qualitative study utilized narrative inquiry to construct the stories of all 20 participants in order to investigate how funds of knowledge is perceived, interpreted, and used by students, parents, and teachers in this high school community. Interviews, observations, document analysis, and photovoice journals were used to gather data. Findings indicated that teachers perceived funds of knowledge differently than students and their parents, which may result in a loss of instructional opportunities.
Educational Practice Report: 6. The National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity and Second Language Learning., 1993
with diverse students and families: A funds of Knowledge Perspective
2016
The purpose of this study was to examine how preservice teachers, from a funds of knowledge perspective, in a community-based early childhood teacher preparation programme learned about the language and (bi)literacy development of young English emergent bilinguals. Through a series of in-depth home observations their early childhood education (ECE) coursework preservice teachers reflected on young children's literacy learning and family literacy practices. We followed case studies of six participating preservice teachers who were placed with families with children enrolled in preschool programmes as part of their field experience. A research team composed of two university professors and two graduate students gathered a variety of data during one academic year. Data sources include field notes, video and audio recordings and children's emergent literacy samples from six family home interactions by the preservice teachers with their assigned case study families. During these family home visits, preservice teachers conducted observations and documented their respective case study child's language development and the family's literacy practices. The focus of the analysis entailed an ongoing examination of how preservice teachers' reflections and the home family literacy interactions helped deepen their understanding of funds of knowledge and cultural practices. We found that their extensive and consistent experiences, interacting with the families for one academic year, allowed them to reflect on how their views of those interactions had evolved. In all cases, the preservice teachers we
The conceptualization of working-class Latino students' households as being rich in funds of knowledge has engendered transformative consequences for teachers, parents, students, and researchers. The qualitative study of their own students' households by teachers has unfolded as a viable method for bridging the gap between school and community. Teachers enter the households of two to three of their students as ethnographers, that is, as learners of the everyday lived contexts of their students' lives. These are not home visits in the usual sense, as teachers do not attempt to teach the family or to visit for disciplinary reasons. The focus of the home visit is to gather details about the accumulated knowledge base that each household assembles in order to ensure its own subsistence. Teachers also participate in study groups that offer a forum for the collective analysis of the household findings. Based on their experiences in the households and the study groups, teachers form curriculum units that tap into the household funds of knowledge. Parents have been drawn into the process by the validation of household knowledge as worthy of pedagogical notice. New avenues of communication between school and home have been constructed in a way which fosters confianza, or mutual trust. "Home visits are not new. I was doing home visits 20 years ago in the Model Cities program," asserted the principal of one elementary school. Her point is well taken. The notion of home visits is neither novel nor unusual. Teachers may opt to visit the home of a student to discuss a particular problem, such as a student's disruptive behavior in the classroom, or to pinpoint difficulties with a particular subject matter. The teacher may simply introduce himself or herself to parents and elicit their cooperation. Some school programs require home visits for the teachers to mentor parents on the teaching of reading or math to their children, to provide suggestions on how to help the students with their homework, or to distribute books and supplies. In this report, however, we describe a very different type of household visit by teachers. These are research visits for the express purpose of identifying and documenting knowledge that exists in students' homes. In contrast to other visits, these visits are part of a "systematic, intentional inquiry by teachers"-as Lytle and Cochran-Smith (1990, p. 84) define teacher research-about their students' household life. We are convinced This report was prepared with funding from the Office of EducationalResearch and Improvement (OERI) of the U.S. Department of Education, under Cooperative Agreement No. R117G10022. The findings and opinions expressed here are those of the author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of OERI.