Community languages teachers’ funds of knowledge: domains, meta-awareness and transferability

ABSTRACT

Community languages (CL) schools have grown rapidly to accommodate an increasing number of learners globally. However, teacher development for CL schools remains under-researched, and a deficit view of the CL teachers continues to dominate. Contextualised in Victoria Australia, and theoretically driven by the concept of funds of knowledge, this study explores how CL teachers’ everyday life and work practices might constitute sources of knowledge that are worthy of curricular and pedagogical notice. Specifically, this study addresses two research questions: what funds of knowledge do CL teachers have? How do they use such knowledge for teaching in CL schools? Qualitative data and descriptive statistics were collected through teacher surveys, teacher journals and workshop observation of 70 CL teachers of 15 languages in Victoria, Australia. CL teachers’ funds of knowledge were analysed and defined in terms of domains of practices, teacher meta-awareness, and knowledge transferability. We delineate four interwoven domains of CL teachers’ funds of knowledge, which have been generated through and embedded in their interpersonal, intercultural, inter-schooling and interdisciplinary practices. We argue for professional development of CL teachers to build upon increasing CL teachers’ meta-awareness and facilitating specific and broad transfers of their funds of knowledge.

KEYWORDS:

• funds of knowledge
• practices
• teacher development
• community language schools

Acknowledgement

This research project was supported by Community Languages Australia.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Ethics approval was received for this study from RMIT University Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC): NHMRC Code: EC00237. All participants received and signed a Participant Information and Consent Form.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Community Languages Australia.

Notes on contributors

Jing Qi

Jing Qi is a senior lecturer in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, and Program Manager of Community Languages Teacher Education Program at RMIT University. She teaches education and language courses and has worked on multiple research and teacher education projects in Australia and internationally. She researches and publishes in the areas of teacher education, language education, international education, and doctoral education.

Kerry Mullan

Kerry Mullan is Convenor of Languages in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University. She teaches French language and culture, and sociolinguistics. Her main research interests are cross-cultural communication and differing interactional styles, particularly those of French and Australian English speakers. She also researches in the areas of language teaching, intercultural pragmatics, discourse analysis and conversational humour.