Science and Mathematics Funds of Knowledge in High-Performing Educational Systems

• In Event: A Critical Perspective on Multi-Literacies With a Focus on Marginalized Students.

Abstract

Science taught in schools is historically (and currently) represented largely by privileging ‘whiteness’, masculinity, and middle-class practices (Harding, 1994; Buck, Clark, Leslie-Pelecy, Lu, Cerda-Lizarraga, 2008; Lee & Buxton, 2010). This perpetuates the stereotypes of who belongs in science, and through this process benefits the same people who are already privileged to begin with. The science curriculum tends to have narrow depictions of what science is and what science looks like which can make it harder for teachers to re-imagine science and take into consideration other types of students’ interest in science (Carlone, Scott and Lowder, 2014, p. 863).

This study aims to investigate what are the out-of-school, cultural knowledge (funds of knowledge) that students from families in poverty have access to particularly in the science and mathematics domains. In addition, the study investigates how student’s existing knowledge may be marginalised in dominant classroom spaces.

The use of “funds of knowledge” as described by González, Moll, and Amanti (2006) is posited to increase meaning making in classrooms and increase the relevance of classroom instruction to their lifeworlds. Moll, Amanti, Neff, and Gonzalez (1992) conceptualised “funds of knowledge as historically accumulated and culturally developed bodies of knowledge and skills which can be household and community resources” (p. 132 - 133).

This study is based on part of a study that takes a phenomenological approach to understanding student lived experiences.This project conducted semi-structured interviews with students and fieldnotes from the participation in a Discotech project at low income rental housing neighbourhoods. There will be a follow-up project to be conducted in the second half of 2021 and early 2022 that will add to the findings on how teachers and classrooms perceive science and mathematics funds of knowledge and what types of knowledge they value in classrooms.

Findings from the study have shown that there are various aspects of everyday life that students engage in for science and mathematics. Students engage in a diversity of activities ranging from cooking, baking, youth leadership, photography, use of social media (TikTok, YouTube) which can readily be applied to science and mathematics classrooms. The extent to which they engage in those activities and interests are observed in the types of content that they created during the Discotech program. For instance, students leveraged on their interest in playing football to create a video appeal to the neighbourhood community group to allow them to continue playing at a multi-purpose court. There is an intersection of various interests in one output - social and community interest, sports, and video content creation.

This study adds to the expansion of valued literacy practices that pertain to science and mathematics domains. This project provides an important contribution to redefine and reimagine what community resources look like in a multicultural and high performing educational system. It also shows that scientific and mathematical funds of knowledge are not confined to single interest topics or areas but often appear as a combination of various interests intersecting based on their identities.

Author

• Shamala Raveendaran, National Institute of Education - Nanyang Technological University