Rethinking How to Understand Children's Funds of Knowledge Using the Context of Early Childhood Classrooms

• In Event: Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring Pedagogical Boundaries: Examining Issues of Instruction, Voice, and Peer Interactions of Students and Families

Abstract

With the growing population of culturally diverse students and families in the United States, teachers are expected to support families and teach children from varying backgrounds. Instead of aiming for cultural congruence or accommodation, teachers aim for reciprocal relationships between the home and school cultures. This interpretivist study examined how two prekindergarten teachers used the funds of knowledge framework and the context of their play-based classrooms to identify, incorporate, and build learning opportunities based on children’s cultural resources and experiences. Findings indicate that teachers drew from their multifaceted pedagogical content knowledge and previous knowledge of children and families to directly inquire about children’s cultural practices outside of school as young children used agency to willingly incorporate their FoK into learning.

Author

• Anne Karabon, University of Wisconsin - Madison