Abstract
When teachers are charged with educating students who are racially, culturally, or economically different from them, they may have little information on the culture and the expectations for family involvement, of their students. This lack of information may lead to perceptions of working-class families, in particular, as socially disorganized and intellectually deficient. Research embodying the theoretical framework of Funds of Knowledge (FoK) attempts to counter this deficit model through its assertion that all families possess extensive bodies of knowledge that have developed through social, historical, political, and economic contexts. The purpose of this study was to carefully examine one Hispanic family’s support of their young children’s early literacy development in the home. Findings indicated that the family possessed extensive FoK, which proved useful not only at home but in the classroom through action research. Additionally, this study led to changes in my own perceptions of families’ experiences and prompted changes in the way I, as an educator, utilized home learning in the classroom. FoK research, in conjunction with action research and autoethnography, is not extensively addressed in literature.
Recommended Citation
Butler, Ami and Miretzky, Debra
(2020)
"Funds of Knowledge and Early Literacy: A Mixed Methods Study,"
Mid-Western Educational Researcher: Vol. 32:
Iss.
3, Article 6.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/mwer/vol32/iss3/6
