1-024 - Promoting Cultural Responsiveness of Early Childhood Curriculum and Professional Development: Funds of Knowledge Approaches

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Young children, especially those from non-dominant groups, often miss important learning opportunities in which experiential knowledge from their families and communities could serve as leverage for promoting their transition to school and future engagement in learning. Early childhood educators can make powerful connections between this familiar knowledge and classroom curriculum (Michaels, Shouse, & Schweingruber, 2008). Luis Moll and colleagues (1992; 2005) have promoted such an approach. Their ‘funds of knowledge’ concept is operationalized as a family’s knowledge of the local environment and community and the funds of expertise they have developed to adapt to and function within their local context, acknowledging that homes and communities “contain ample cultural and cognitive sources with great potential utility for classroom instruction” (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 2005, p. 75). The collective work represented in this symposium responds to recent national calls for incorporating families’ funds of knowledge into classroom experiences for young children (National Research Council, 2012). The studies vary along several dimensions, including: how a funds of knowledge approach was implemented; methodological approach (i.e., case study, mixed-methods, and pre-post RCT); and preschool curriculum area of focus (STEM and literacy). Formative and summative findings have clear implications for the field of early childhood development and education, particularly for dual language learners. The Chairs are researchers with national visibility in the areas of early childhood development, cultural approaches to family engagement, and dual language learners and will provide an overview of common themes across the papers and moderate a 20-minute Q&A with the audience.

Sub Unit

• Education, Schooling

Chairs

• Gigliana Melzi, New York University

• Christine M McWayne, Tufts University

Individual Presentations

• The role of funds of knowledge to inform pedagogical approaches to early mathematics - Presenting Author: Anne Karabon, University of Nebraska at Omaha

• Supporting African Heritage Children’s School Success through Oral Stories in the Classroom - Presenting Author: Adina Schick, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Gigliana Melzi, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Cassie Wuest, New York University

• An Innovative Home-School Collaboration Approach for Engaging Low-income, Immigrant Families in Curriculum Co-Construction - Presenting Author: Christine M McWayne, Tufts University; Non-Presenting Author: Jayanthi Mistry, Tufts University; Non-Presenting Author: Betty Zan, University of Northern Iowa; Non-Presenting Author: Kimberly Brenneman, Heising-Simons Foundation; Non-Presenting Author: Daryl Greenfield, University of Miami; Non-Presenting Author: Sunah Hyun, Tufts University