Funds of Knowledge as a Tool: Bilingual and Dual Language Educators Recentering the Sociopolitical Context of Funds of Knowledge

• In Event: Sociocultural Perspectives on Teaching Science and Engineering in Bilingual and Dual-Language Programs: Professional Development Issues

Abstract

Purpose:
In this paper, we explore how Funds of Knowledge (FoK) (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992; Velez-Ibañez & Greenberg, 1992) can mediate teachers’ to engagement with Science and Engineering (S&E) content. We focus on how collaborations between interdisciplinary groups of researchers and middle-school bilingual and dual language (BDL) teachers led to using FoK as a tool that mediated S&E teaching and learning. This collaboration was grounded on the principle that FoK can guide teachers to research and document knowledge of their own students, families and communities, and of its sociopolitical contexts, to integrate them into a BDL classroom.

Theoretical Framework:
FoK research was intended to demonstrate that households provide the unique environment for learning “where error is not dealt with punitively and where self-esteem is not endangered” (Velez-Ibañez & Greenberg, 1992, p. 326), as opposed to the formal classroom setting where ability and intellect are contested. Sociopolitical forces (e.g., ideologies, policies, practices, and norms) serve as the backdrop for these power dynamics, where only certain ways of being are represented in the classroom, certain types of knowledge are considered valid, and only some ways of doing that are accepted.

Methods:
This paper is part of a larger study where we sought to provide five middle-school BDL teachers at a STEM-based Title I school located in the U.S.-Mexico border with opportunities to co-create engineering activities that recognized, valued and elicited students' FoK. For this paper, we were guided by the question: How does FoK mediate the access for BDL teachers to engage with S&E content in ways that connect to students’ lived experiences? The participating BDL teachers collaborated with researchers to use concepts of engineering design, funds of knowledge, and language and STEM content integration. Data collection involved classroom observations, field notes, and interviews. The data was analyzed following a deductive coding approach to qualitative research.

Results:
FoK guided teachers in questioning preconceived notions about what types of knowledge have a place in S&E. For instance, one teacher designed a fast-fashion unit for an engineering design challenge that required students take apart clothing. FoK guided how she developed her unit by observing and documenting the students’ spaces, practices, and knowledge, particularly their U.S.-Mexico border experiences. Later, she became critically conscious of how the curriculum centered on expectations and values that did not reflect the lived realities of her students, i.e., not all students had extra clothes to take apart. She re-designed to acknowledge new understandings. Teachers acknowledged the borderland experiences of their students as important frames for learning S&E, including lived experiences on both sides of the border.

Significance:
Collaborative work grounded on FoK mediates S&E teaching and learning. FoK counters hegemonic practices and reflects educational practices that can lead to social change, including teachers and students taking on more agency about S&E work. Collaborations with teachers also have the potential to explore students’ lives while recognizing its embedded sociopolitical contexts.

Authors

• Joel Alejandro Mejia, The University of Texas - San Antonio

• Alberto Esquinca, San Diego State University

• Vitaliy Popov, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor