Challenging the Norm: A Reading Specialist's Approach to Funds of Identity

• In Event: Complicating Asset-Oriented Literacy Pedagogies in the Classroom and Community: Negotiating Funds of Knowledge/Identity Entanglements

Abstract

Purpose
This presentation documents how one early elementary reading specialist created space for a funds of knowledge/funds of identity framework (Esteban-Guitart & Moll, 2013) within a small group remedial reading space. ‘Remedial’ or ‘intervention’ teaching and learning spaces often take up deficit perspectives and prioritize skill-based literacy practices, frequently delivered through scripted curriculum (Ede, 2006). Such instruction assumes a one-size-fits-all approach for students identified as “struggling” and “in need of support” (Harry & Klingner, 2014); however, drawing from this study, we argue that reading specialists can implement asset-based pedagogies to make reading instruction more accessible, engaging, and equitable, positioning students as knowledgeable in traditionally deficit-oriented spaces.

Theoretical Framework
Situated within the sociocultural theoretical framework, funds of knowledge/identity (FOK/I) is an asset-oriented approach to teaching and learning that assumes families and communities contribute valuable educational resources, and that even young children have accumulated life experiences and knowledge that can be used for identity construction and harnessed for pedagogical purposes (Esteban-Guitart & Moll, 2013, p. 35; ‘t Gilde & Volman, 2021). By drawing on such knowledge, teachers validate student identities and experiences (Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, 2005; ‘t Gilde & Volman, 2021), even offsetting the standardization of remedial reading spaces (Struck & Vagle; 2014).

Modes of Inquiry
This presentation highlights practitioner inquiry, which specifically positions the educator as both researcher and agent of change in response to issues of day-to-day practice, examining the discrepancies between what is intended and what actually occurs during instruction and within practice (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009). For data analysis, a thematic analysis was implemented (Creswell & Poth, 2018).

Data Sources
Drawn from a larger, four-month study, this presentation focuses primarily on data from a 30-minute lesson involving four participants, which includes student-created collaging artifacts, curricular-related materials, transcribed audio recording of the lesson, and fieldnotes and reflections from a teacher-researcher journal.

Preliminary Results
In lieu of prefabricated, decontextualized materials, the teacher-researcher engaged in curricular redesign to create and implement an activity that allowed students to create multimodal collages using magazines that not only illuminated each student’s specific funds of identity (i.e. Frozen and Michigan) but also scaffolded and supported student learning towards literacy-based curricular goals (Esteban-Guitart & Moll, 2013; ‘t Gilde & Volman, 2021), specifically, identifying consonant letters and sounds. This project asserts that when literacy practitioners are aware of and actively in search of students’ FOK/I, they can work creatively “in the cracks” (Atkinson, 2013) to redesign and negotiate rigorous curricula that situates and values children’s FOK/I within and alongside school-based literacies in order to make literacy learning more meaningful and effective (Esteban-Guitart & Moll, 2013).

Scholarly Significance
Working on the border of general/special education, reading specialists are often positioned as gatekeepers and, “conceptualized as instrumental to literacy reform efforts focused on data-driven instruction” (Galloway & Lesaux, 2014, p. 518). Engaging students in asset-based pedagogies within remedial spaces helps to fill a significant gap in the literature for more culturally responsive teaching practices, such as FOK/I, particularly within intervention/remedial reading spaces (Klingner & Edwards, 2006).

Authors

• Kaitlin Larson, Indiana University

• Patricia Kelley-Nazzaro, MGH Institute of Health Professions