Exploring Students' Worlds: Leveraging Funds of Knowledge Through Virtual Community Explorations

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Building on Students' Funds of Knowledge in the Classroom

Abstract

Leveraging multilingual learners’ lived experiences is essential but can be challenging for pre-service teachers (PSTs), especially in a virtual environment. This case study qualitatively examines how a virtual internship experience, the Community Exploration project, supported PSTs’ understandings of their students’ lives. Analysis revealed that the projects with the most potential for PSTs to learn about funds of knowledge began with intentional conversations with students about local spaces, which validated and mobilized multilingual learners’ experiences in specific ways related to curriculum. When PSTs did not survey students, projects reinforced teacher-centered curriculum, directly contradicting the idea of mobilizing funds of knowledge. This study has implications for teacher education and conceptualizing funds of knowledge as part of the broader repertoire of PSTs’ instruction.

Authors

• Carmen Durham, University of Northern Iowa

• Loren Jones, University of Maryland - College Park

• Wyatt Hall, University of Maryland - College Park