Chapter 27: Designing for Inclusion - Exploring Funds of Knowledge

 Chapter 27: Designing for Inclusion - Exploring Funds of Knowledge

Date/Time: 12th September 2024 -  Thursday 3:46 am & 8:53 pm

This is another interesting post exploring the concept of “Funds of Knowledge” that I came across while I was skimming through the content of module 2 of the ISTE online course about “Designing for Inclusion”. So my understanding so far is that having knowledge of the learners background and personal life experiences actually helps the teachers plan lessons accordingly. Maybe teachers can utilise the data they gather about students' lives at homes and plan more meaningful activities rather than ensuring compliance in classrooms.

This is a new concept for me. I tried to explore a little more by skimming through a website. This concept was introduced by Luis Moll, Cathy Amanti, Deborah Neff, and Norma Gonzalez in their book titled Secondary Educators Theorising Practices in Households, Communities, and Classrooms (2001). The word “fund” refers to groundwork or foundation as quoted in the website. I think this basically refers to gathering data about the learners personal lives at home, with their families, friends etc. This information could be about their daily routines, likes and dislikes, relationships with family members, siblings, favourite tv shows , favourite food, favourite places to visit, favourite activities at home, hobbies of family members, views on certain topic topics, any struggles in family or accidents, any challenging situations faced, happy times, achievements, some insight into the history of the family - languages they speak at home, any characteristics inherited from grandparents etc 

I think a good idea could be to have a face to face chat with the parents & learners. This could be recorded with family consent or key points could be noted in a journal or a notepad that only specific people have access to. Also it is important that the parents are taken on board before gathering data. In some cultures people do not like sharing much about their families, and can have concerns related to their privacy. Though I would suggest face to face meet ups with parents in the presence of learners, if the parents do not feel comfortable sharing data, they could always be asked to fill in a survey form or an exit ticket which requires them to share basic information in an anonymous survey. 

As an educator, I think having access to data about my learners would give me meaningful insight into their behaviour patterns , mood swings or irrational behaviour. It would also help me create activities tailoring to the specific needs of learners. It will shed insight on the different identities of my learners. It will definitely provide details on how each learner comes with a completely different background and experience in life. 

I can relate this to a class that I voluntarily teach at times at a street school here in Peshawar i.e. Ranaa Child Welfare Foundation. I have often observed a weird sitting pattern, murmuring among learners, dress up concerns, carefree style of conversing at times, some write well, some speak well, some have difficulty in speaking and reading in English. One of the reasons is that they all come from Pathan backgrounds, and they all are native Pushto speakers. They all come from underprivileged families. I think now, by gathering some data about their personal lives at home with the consent of the parents and the school team, I might be able to tailor learning accordingly. 

Since I honestly do not have much knowledge about these children - what is the environment at home? Who earns at home? What caused them to sell on the streets? What about their hobbies? Who supports them at home? Who supports their learning? How is their relationship with their siblings and family members at home? Does someone at home suppress them or their needs? This data could be very helpful in ensuring these learners get the quality education every learner deserves as per UN sustainable development goal 4 - providing quality education. 

I remember recording podcasts with the learners at the street school. They preferred recording in Pushto, which was their native language, and  though I encouraged recording in English or Urdu, even Pushto worked if they could explain the learning experience well. Still they were able to record podcasts in Urdu. I remember we used to have live techy kids show every week  live on Facebook, where the learners recorded their learning experiences and responded to questions by the audience if any. A learner asked me how they could see that recording of the live show. And my normal response was on the school's Facebook page. I still remember I had to open the page on my mobile and show them the video posted on the page. Now, I did not know if they had access to mobiles at home or knew about social media pages? I could have gathered some important data about their lives but honestly it never occurred as such. 

The same exercise could be done for teachers as well. Knowing about their funds of knowledge will help us understand the teachers better. I do a little exercise before the online training sessions for teachers like asking simple questions about the availability of the internet? Access to an internet enabled device? Flexible timings? Willing to pay etc. It gives me insight into some of the challenges teachers have while considering the online sessions. And I could add a few more questions to know these teachers well related to personality, likes/dislikes, challenges etc. I also remember parents sharing concerns about the availability of devices at home, during the Covid classes online. It was important that we gather data about the learners, their families before taking the initiatives. Almost all schools went online during Covid times and mostly used Google for Education tools to provide teaching and learning experiences. There were concerns of the internet, devices, timings, parents being occupied, siblings class schedules etc. Now while thinking back, I can see the immense importance of “Funds of Knowledge” and how by knowing these and treating them as learners' assets we can be in a much stronger position to provide our learners with the appropriate learning opportunities in schools. This will enable us to design for inclusion and learners with variability. It will widen the classroom enough to hold all learners with empathy, kindness and compassion. 

These are new valuable concepts and I hope people will explore further after reading my posts. 

Enjoy reading 🙂

Regards and prayers

Sheeba Ajmal