Children's ‘funds of knowledge’ and their real life activities: two minority ethnic children learning in out‐of‐school contexts in the UK

Abstract

In this paper we explore the concept of ‘funds of knowledge’ used by Moll and Greenberg (1990) in the US to recognize and value expertise located within minority ethnic communities and apply it to the out‐of‐school learning engaged in by two primary school‐aged minority ethnic children in the UK. As part of the UK government's policy on social inclusion attempts have been made to address underachievement of certain groups of minority ethnic pupils. One recommendation to schools has been to draw on communities', families' and children's ‘funds of knowledge’ in order to improve the school experience and achievements of minority ethnic pupils. We provide two case studies of the children's lives and learning out of school and then consider the implications for educational practice of drawing on these kinds of funds of knowledge. The data are drawn from a wider project, one strand of which had a focus on mathematics, and as such there is a slant towards out‐of‐school learning relating to mathematics although the examples we discuss are not solely in the area of mathematics. Throughout the paper we reflect on issues associated with researching and writing about diversity in the learning of children in different settings.

Acknowledgements

The HSKE project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (reference number L139 25 1078) as part of its Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP). Further information about the project and the programme can be found at http://www.home‐school‐learning.org.uk and http://www.tlrp.org. The authors are very grateful to the children, parents and teachers who participated in the project and to the local education authorities (LEAs) of Cardiff and Bristol for their support. The HSKE project team consists of: Martin Hughes (project director), Andrew Pollard (who is also director of TLRP), Jane Andrews, Anthony Feiler, Pamela Greenhough, David Johnson, Elizabeth McNess, Marilyn Osborn, Mary Scanlan, Leida Salway, Vicki Stinchcombe, Jan Winter, Wan Ching Yee.