Poster #182 - Incorporating Latino Children’s Funds of Knowledge into the Preschool Classroom

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - School Readiness/Childcare

Integrative Statement

All children, regardless of their backgrounds, enter the classroom environment with a set of cultural and communal resources known as funds of knowledge (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992). Past research has shown that educators can support children’s learning and achievement by incorporating these funds of knowledge – which include, for example, cultural and familial values and traditions, family activities, and home language – into classroom learning experiences. Capitalizing on children’s cultural funds of knowledge (FoK) is particularly important for children from ethnic-minority backgrounds, such as Latino children in U.S. schools, whose home experiences might not be aligned with mainstream classroom practices. Yet, to date, research has not explored whether the manner in which cultural funds of knowledge are incorporated into the classroom environment matters. As such, the current study was a first step in addressing this gap in the research by exploring the effectiveness of two funds of knowledge programs, one that takes a global approach to incorporating funds of knowledge throughout the preschool day and one that focuses specifically on one culturally-salient fund of knowledge, in supporting Latino preschoolers’ school readiness.
Participants included 61 preschool teachers of Latino children from low-income families and 390 of the 4-year-olds. During the first three months of the school year, teachers were trained in one of two funds- of-knowledge intervention programs. Twenty-two teachers were in Building Bridges, a program designed to incorporate FoK throughout the preschool day, for example by greeting children and parents in their home language, including models of famous buildings and structures from the children’s home cultures in the block corner, and using culture-relevant examples when teaching mathematical concepts. The remaining teachers were in R-SUCCESS, a culturally grounded classroom oral storytelling program. Following training, teachers incorporated their program twice a week for the remainder of the school year. During the final months of the year, children’s social-emotional skills were assessed using the assessor report of the PSRA (Smith-Donald et al., 2007). Using the conversational map, children were asked to share two personal narratives with the investigator. Narrative coding focused on four indices of children’s academic language skills: Context, chronology, and theme, using an adaptation of Reese et al., (2011) coding of narrative coherence, and vocabulary diversity, using VOCD programs available through the CHILDES system.
Analysis of data is ongoing. However, preliminary findings suggest that children in R-SUCCESS classrooms demonstrated higher scores in context (p = .01), chronology (p < .05), and theme (p < .05), as well as greater vocabulary diversity (p < .01) at the end of the preschool year. One year after participating in R-SUCCESS children continued to score higher in theme (p < .05). Moreover, children in R-SUCCESS classrooms also had greater attention and impulse control (p < .01). By contrast, however, children in Building Bridges classrooms had higher positive emotion scores (p < .01). Findings will be discussed in relation to how preschool teachers can best incorporate funds of knowledge into their regular curriculum to support children’s learning.

Authors

• Gigliana Melzi, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Adina Schick, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lauren Scarola, New York University
  Presenting Author

• Cassie Wuest, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author