Min Zhang

Applying Funds of Knowledge in a Community

Language School

Introduction
The concept of funds of knowledge
The term Funds of Knowledge (FoK) was originally coined by Wolf’s (1966)
research. The concept has been adopted and further developed by Moll et
al. (1992), which refers to the practices and knowledge generated by
students (and their families), particularly among migrant families in the US.
And this source of knowledge represents that ‘classroom learning can be
greatly enhanced when teachers learn more about their students and their
students’ households’ (Moll & Gonzalez, 2012, p. 90). Over the years, the
notion of FoK has been reconceptualized and borrowed by educators and
further developed into an approach to curriculum and pedagogical
development. According to Hoggs (2011), the original concept of funds of
knowledge is extended to explain aspects of teachers’ knowledge. Further,
Hedges (2012) defines teachers’ funds of knowledge as ‘the bodies of
knowledge (including information, skills, and strategies) that underlie the
functioning, development, and well-being of teachers in curriculum decision-
making and interactions with young children in educational settings’ (13).
She also classified teachers’ funds of knowledge into three big categories,
as shown in table 1. In this essay, I argue that my funds of knowledge act as
an analytic framework that influenced my decision-making in curricular
design and lesson delivery. I employ Hedge’s (2012) two FoK classifications
to review the personal sources of knowledge that inform my teaching
practices in a community-based language school.

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Table 1: The three funds of knowledge in Hedge’s (2012) classifications

Context Funds of Knowledge
Family-based funds of knowledge --Personal and family experiences (support, emotions,
experiences as learners)
--Relationships with own children;

Centre-based funds of knowledge --Relationships with children, i.e., learners.

--Teacher beliefs and values
Community-based funds of --Teacher education programme influences.
knowledge --Professional learning programmes (e.g., workshops and
conferences).
--Other studies (e.g., courses on general education).
--Professional and academic self-directed reading;

Teachers’ funds of knowledge (Hedges, 2012).

Funds of knowledge in Chinese Teaching

The year from 2020 to the year 2021, I worked as a Mandarin teacher in a
community-based language school at Berwick. And the experience with
children witnessed how my funds of knowledge (FoK) influence my weekly
teaching practices. Since I was going to have the same students (Grade 3-4)
in my class, I was able to reflect on my teaching when I taught in the first
year, which enriched my understanding of how I could tap into the
knowledge that I possessed to engage students in ongoing developmental
goals such as reading, writing, and speaking. Of the 14 students in my class,
12 were Australian-born Chinese, one from Malaysian, and one was
Singaporeans. As a potential postgraduate lack of teaching experience, my
teaching designs are mainly subsumed under the centre and community-
based context of FoK, based on Hedges’ (2012) classification of funds of
knowledge. In other words, centre-based knowledge involves my life
experience, beliefs, and values about good teaching practice, which inform
my pedagogical implementations. The rest of the funds were associated with
community-based knowledge, such as self-directed research and
professional workshops offered by the community language school.

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Case Example 1
Involved Funds of Knowledge: Centre-based funds of knowledge

This Uni includes three lessons mainly focused on six famous inventions. I

chose one lesson 《Why Does the Kettle Lid Move 壶盖为什么会动 》for my

cross-disciplinary teaching. I am selecting this lesson because I firmly

believe that it is essential to create ways to connect with the knowledge of
the lived experience and encourages students to go more in-depth with the
facts they are learning. Thus, I selected this shown experiment to introduce
new ideas to students and scaffold their learning.

Picture 1. Picture 2.

The context is about James Watt coming out with the idea of powerful steam
by observing that heating water can provide enough power to move the
kettle lid. The core value of the session is to encourage students to
understand that developing critical thinking help advance their learning.
Within this context, Watt’s curiosity about the moving kettle stimulates his
critical thinking. He also realised that success did not come in one night. He
continued to experiment through many trial-and-error. Driven by my personal
belief in what practical teaching is, I searched for an experimental video
online (picture 1) and decided to present the experiment in my class (picture
2).

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The whole class activity in the first session focused on vocabulary learning
and context interpretations. Students were also encouraged to share the
inventions they observed in their life. For example, one student shared that
he could make cheese toasties by using a sandwich press. Another student
shared that the invention of the plane had lessened long-distance travel.
Supported by the dialogue, I can smoothly move to the experiment session.
During the 45-mins session, students were encouraged to recognize the
present objects and correctly pronounce them in spoken Chinese. For
instance, the glass bottle that was used would be expected to articulate as

‘bō lí píng’(玻璃瓶). At the same time, they also showed positive attitudes in

retelling the experiment sequences and sharing their observations within

their group after the session. Students responded and engaged positively,

which helpfully set up my next teaching contents of 《Lu Ban and the saw

鲁班造锯 》 and《Cai Lun Invented the Paper 蔡伦造纸 》. For example,

one homework asked students to find the normal leaves and some with
sharp edges (picture 3.). They were able to make comparisons among
different leaves and share their tactile responses in front of the class.

Picture 3. One student’s parents shared via WeChat

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Case Example 2
Involved Funds of Knowledge: Centre-based and Community-based funds
of knowledge

This lesson is designed to develop students' awareness of social-emotional,

self-awareness, self-management, and mindfulness within the context of the

Chinese fable story, The Boy who Cried Wolf （狼來了). This story is about

a boy who was a shepherd, kept telling lies and finally failed to gain the trust
of the farmers. The main goal of this lesson is to teach students to
understand the value of being honest, otherwise, it is impossible to gain trust
from people. However, I intended to extend this lesson into a cognitive
behavioural perspective. Cognitive Behavioural Theory (CBT) suggests that
our thoughts, feelings, and actions are running as a repeated circle and all
three elements are connected. In other words, a certain situation happened
that impacts what we think and how we feel and ultimately affects the way
we act upon it. And it has been applied in the educational system as a great
resource for fostering learners’ resilience and general well-being (for
example see Norrish, 2015). As I was doing self-studying and participating in
relevant workshops based on CBT applications in educational contexts,
thus, I employed this approach to support students’ learning in how to
determine positive ways to respond to discouraging situations they may
encounter in their study or daily life. In the activity, students reflected on and
described the story in their own words. Then I invited them to consider how
could the farmers in the story change their mindset and may lead to a
different result?

Picture 4 is demonstrating the CBT cycle used within the taught context.
Based on the three illustrated concepts, students were able to learn how
these concepts are interconnected and affect each other. Specifically, I

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invited students to work together with me to complete the three dots.

Students were asked to review the situations that happened between the
boy and the farmers. Then they brainstormed in the group based on the
questions of “how this situation affects the farmers feel both physically and
emotionally, as well as how they act in response?” This process allows the
students to consider how certain thoughts, feelings, and actions can trap
people in a negative cycle rather than focusing on the solutions to the
problems.

Through the discussions, students pointed out that the farmer need to
educate the boy while they recognised that he was lying (situation). And they
presumed the farmers who came to help might label the boy as a liar or
rude(thoughts). And it was also reasonable for them to bear anger (feeling).
However, without taking further action the farmers just left. Hence, we all
agreed that it is important for the farmers to use their thinking to improve
their actions, which is teaching the boy to understand the virtue of honesty
(action), instead of allowing repeated situations to lead to negative feelings
(three times) and poor behavioural choice (not offer help). Thus, we take a
further presumption of how the farmers think about the situation would
convert the result. By offering help (positive action), the farmers can realise
that guiding a kid with proper behaviour from a young age is essential for
character building (thought). As their thoughts are modified, which greatly
encourages the farmers to change their brain's mindset and spontaneously
grow with constructive (feelings) and ultimately, provide the boy with great
protection while the wolf is coming (action).

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Surprisingly, students eagerly shared their ideas through the way of

demonstrating their understanding of the homework worksheet (pictures 5
and 6). Parents also suggest that they regarded the topic as worthwhile
because students are encouraged to use self-talk to affect or modify their
underlying thinking, which affects how they behave at school or in-home
settings.

Picture 4.

picture 5. Picture 6.
Note: the feedback on the worksheet was sent back to parents due to online teaching during the COVID pandemic time.

Conclusion
According to this reflexive process, my funds of knowledge (FoK) seem to
find traction with what I counted as knowledge about my belief in good
teaching. Two examples were chosen to illustrate how my FoK in centre-
based and community-based attested to my decision-making in lesson

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design and educational applications. I argued that the FoK teachers

possessed act as an analytic framework, which scaffolding their daily
decision-making and pedagogical interactions. In addition, there is another
evidence-based finding validated by Hedges in the case of ten teacher
participants’ study (for details see Hedges, 2012). The study has shown that
children were more engaged and become more responsive while their
interests and inquiries coincided with the teachers’ interests. In other words,
it is the teachers’ understanding of children’s FoK that helps them to design
a student-centred curriculum and support students’ learning. Similarly,
Hogg's review of the literature (2015) highlights the positive connection
between students’ FoK and teachers’ pedagogical ideas in transformative
learning. Put it in another way, attending to students’ FoK such as their life
experience, strengths, and skills, helps develop ideas to make learning
relevant and accessible. Thus, developing awareness of taking students’
FoK account into my pedagogical application might usefully strengthen my
future curricular and FoK-oriented meaningful task planning in different
educational contexts.

References
Banegas, Darío Luis. (2020). Teacher Educators’ Funds of Knowledge for the
Preparation of Future Teachers. RELC Journal.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0033688220973083
Hedges, Helen. (2012). Teachers' funds of knowledge: a challenge to evidence-
based practice. Teachers and Teaching, Theory and Practice, 18(1), 7–24.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2011.622548
Hogg, Linda. (2011). Funds of Knowledge: An investigation of coherence within
the literature. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(3), 666–677.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2010.11.005

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Hogg, L. (2015, August 3–4). Putting funds of knowledge theory into practice:
Applications in classroom teaching. Paper presented at the Education,
Language and Society International Conference, Redlands, California.
Norrish, Jacolyn M. (2015). Positive Education. Oxford University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198702580.001.0001
Moll, Luis C., & González, Nonna. (2012). Teachers as social scientists:
Learning about culture from household research. In Race, Ethnicity, and
Multiculturalism: Policy and Practice (pp. 89–114).
Moll, Luis C., Amanti, Cathy, Neff, Deborah, & Gonzalez, Norma. (1992). Funds
of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes
and classrooms. Theory into Practice, 31(2), 132–141.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00405849209543534
Wolf, E. R. (1966). Peasants. Prentice-Hall.