Exploring Contexts and Intertexts as Funds of Knowledge in Citizenship Education for Bhutanese/Nepali Elders

• In Event: 58.083 - Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: 58.083-1 - Exploring Opportunity: Notions of Play, Agency, and Civic Engagement

Abstract

This paper is part of a larger ethnographic and discourse analytic study of citizenship classes for Bhutanese/Nepalese elders in a Central Ohio community. These classes, held regularly at a community center, are led by teachers with TESOL backgrounds but without similar lived experiences to the students. The research team, composed of American teachers and members from the Bhutanese/Nepalese community, explored the students’ funds of knowledge by using videotaping, playback, and interviews. Drawing on a number of interpretive heuristics, specifically ecological approaches to education and intertextuality, the research team uncovered layers of possible meaning around general and specific issues, and this paper discusses the interpretive process and conclusions drawn from one topic that arose “What is a jury?”

Author

• Brian D Seilstad, The Ohio State University