Funds of knowledge mentors: Partnering with Latinx youth to incite dispositional shifts in teacher preparation

ABSTRACT

This article describes how preservice teachers and Latinx students can collaborate to effect change in the way that K–12 educators support students from traditionally marginalized groups. We build on the concept of funds of knowledge to demonstrate how situating traditionally marginalized students in positions of expertise as funds of knowledge mentors can incite profound dispositional shifts that subvert traditional hierarchies of power within schooling contexts and cultivate professional democracy within the field of education.

KEYWORDS:

• funds of knowledge
• teacher preparation
• immigrant students