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Strategies and resources for contextualising the curriculum based on the funds of knowledge approach: a literature review

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Abstract

This article aims to describe and illustrate how the curriculum can be contextualised through different educational experiences based on the funds of knowledge approach. Educational contextualisation is understood to be the linking of curricular content (literacy, science, mathematics, social sciences) with students’ lives, including prior learning experiences from their homes and communities. The literature review began by surveying 59 articles retrieved from the ERIC database after entering the search terms “funds of knowledge” and “teaching methods”. Out of these, 22 peer reviewed papers were selected based on the following criteria: the paper should illustrate how artefacts produced by students (photographs, texts, artistic productions, digital stories) can be put to pedagogical use by turning them into resources to mobilise knowledge and experiences inside and outside school. The results are discussed in light of the CREDE Standards for Effective Pedagogy, as well as the notion of funds of identity, which has been proposed recently within the context of the funds of knowledge approach.

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Notes

  1. The purpose of the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE), now at University of Hawai’i at Manao, is to identify and develop standards for effective educational practice for culturally and linguistically diverse students derived from Vygotsky’s theory and over 30 years of research. In particular, the CREDE standards are joint productive activity, language and literacy development, contextualization, complex thinking, instructional conversation, modelling, and child directed activity (CREDE 2011; Tharp et al. 2000). In this paper, we are using the CREDE Standards as starting point for two reasons. First, studies have documented the efficacy of these standards in raising student achievement (Doherty and Hilberg 2008; Hilberg et al. 2000). Second, the standard of contextualization, in particular, can be linked with the funds of knowledge approach and legacy, and therefore provides an appropriate foundation for our discussion.

  2. http://manoa.hawaii.edu/coe/crede/videos/contextualization/.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under Grant EDU2009-08891 and by the La Caixa Foundation under Grant RecerCaixa program, call 2013.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Girona, Plaça Sant Domènec, 9, 17071, Girona, Spain

    Mariona Llopart & Moisès Esteban-Guitart

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  1. Mariona Llopart
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  2. Moisès Esteban-Guitart
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Correspondence to Moisès Esteban-Guitart.

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Llopart, M., Esteban-Guitart, M. Strategies and resources for contextualising the curriculum based on the funds of knowledge approach: a literature review. Aust. Educ. Res. 44, 255–274 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-017-0237-8

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