The intent of this paper is to engage the reader in a conversation based on the belief that improving the schoolhouse begins with valuing the cultural capital of students and applauding loudly the uniqueness of the linguistic and cultural diversity they bring to our classrooms. To do this, we explore the differences between the two paradigms of the deficit model (Payne, 2001) and the funds of knowledge (FOK) ( Moll & González, 2003). Using real life scenarios, we provide a venue for the reader to explore his or her perceptions. After this we identify strategic pathways that make it possible for the reader to view culturally and linguistically diverse students from an additive, or FOK perspective, rather than a deficit perspective.

Becoming an Informed Teacher

We challenge the deficit model that is prominent in American society due to perceptions that there is a "right way" and a "wrong way" of living, teaching, acting, and simply being ( Huntington, 2004). Literature blaming the victim and positioning teachers as needing to teach culturally and linguistically diverse students how to survive in the United States by educating them with "appropriate" ways of being and knowing are promulgated by many (see Hirsch, 1988; Huntington, 2004; Payne, 2001).

This, coupled with the notion that students come into classrooms with "wrong" ways of living and that they need to be taught the correct way, leads many to believe that teachers’ work simply requires filling the heads of students with what the teacher considers to be the correct knowledge ( i.e. Banking Model in Freire, 1996) because the students are “blank slates.” All of these facets combined make for the perfect storm of an environment that devalues students’ cultural norms, familial knowledge, and experiences.

In stark contrast to this deficit model is the notion of FOK ( Moll & González, 2003). This theory advocates the use of the skill base families have by using students’ cultural capital in the classroom. That is, teachers go into the home and learn about the family, not from a judgmental stance but from that of a collaborator who genuinely wants to learn how the family functions and seeks to identify the valuable skills its members have. Home visits help teachers come to know the networks that are the key to how families function, to how children develop their identities, and to how its members support each other. Armed with this information, teachers can tap into this familial knowledge and make classroom content more meaningful and relevant.

When teachers know their students, they are able to build bridges between homes and schools and create a classroom environment that will not only lower students’ affective filters ( Krashen, 1985), but will also create the comprehensible invite ( Faltis & Hudelson, 1998) that is necessary for learning to occur. Informed teachers believe it is their responsibility to know as much as possible of what their students experience as those students navigate the worlds in which they reside ( Moll & González, 2003). These informed and inquiring teachers view the differences across cultural groups as strengths rather than deficits. Although it is easier for teachers to work with classrooms filled with students who share the same cultural norms, socioeconomic status (SES), experiences, belief systems, and languages as they do, we believe that it is far more interesting to work in diverse schools and be engaged in a constant stage of discovery and learning about other ways of being.

Schools do not always provide the welcoming, affirming environments that English language learners need. In schools, learners are exposed to values, beliefs, expectations, and norms of behavior that often differ radically from those they see in their home communities ( Bennett, 2011). More often than not, the schoolhouse and/or a classroom presents learners with a teacher who neither looks like, talks like, nor behaves like a person they know. Yet the reality is that it is in schools where children develop their identity. Via the posters on the hallway walls, content read and discussed in the classroom, and interactions with their peers and teachers, students learn what makes a good United States citizen, what makes a hero, what is beautiful and what is not ( Suárez-Orozco & Qin-Hillard, 2003).Teachers who subscribe to the paradigm of a FOK as opposed to a deficit model assure their students see themselves reflected in the instructional content of the classroom. In a classroom that is an FOK-based environment, students feel more respected by the teacher and have more schema to which they can attach the new information being taught ( Moll & González, 2003). An FOK approach ensures students’ self-esteem is positively nourished because differences and individuality are celebrated.

How Does a Teacher Become Informed?

In our presentation at TESOL 2013, we shared pictures of learners from other countries to demonstrate to attendees what an educator can learn by visiting an unfamiliar neighborhood and observing people in the act of living their daily lives. Small snapshots can lead an observer to learn a great deal. When we delved into the stories of the individuals in our photos, we together inquired into what each photo did or did not tell us, and led us to want to explore at a deeper level. A photo of an adolescent from Oaxaca, Mexico holding a hand carved alebrije allowed us to ask: What cultural capital do you see? And how can this knowledge be transferred to your classroom?

Indeed, there is a wonderful story to how the little whimsical figures of the alebrijes came to be, and why the beautiful indigenous young lady in the photo was selling these. Learning the details of how the tiny community of Arrazola in the state of Oaxaca went from being an extremely poor area to one where its citizens could make a modest livingis an empowering story about human ingenuity and creativity. As humans, it is through our own inquisitiveness and curiosity that we uncover the beauty and cultural capital in those who surround us. When a teacher least expects it, he or she may have an English language learner whose parientes (close relatives) are creators of alebrijes. This is exactly what happened to a teacher in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago the day one of the authors (Daniel) visited and gave a presentation focused on the artistry within the state of Oaxaca. The teacher had four students in her sixth grade class who smiled from ear to ear at seeing and hearing talk of the marvels discovered in visits to the children's home state.

We therefore propose that the first task for a teacher who wants to learn about his or her students’ lives, and become their ally, is to take on the role of an ethnographer/researcher ( Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993; Hubbard & Power, 2003). We advise the teacher to visit the neighborhood of the school and become a participant observer. The teacher can go inside the grocery store, try to read the ads for the week’s specials if these are in a different language, stand by the meat counter, and listen to the number calling the next customer yelled out in a language other than English. A visit to other local establishments  where many children buy gifts for their teachers, will also provide a taste of the environment in which the students are living.

After this, the teacher can become even more inquisitive and visit students’ homes. The home visit offers the opportunity to learn from the families, ask delicate questions from a respectful stance, and establish the ever so crucial personal connection. As well, during the visit, parents who attended school in a different country have an opportunity to ask questions about schooling in the United States within a social context that is welcoming rather than stressful. The main purpose of the visit is not to judge or teach, but to learn from the families. During the conversation, the teacher will gather much information through observation and conversation about what the family considers important. The teacher will leave knowing what the parents do for a living and what they identify as long-term goals for their child’s future. Families often enjoy sharing tidbits of their interests, celebrations, and what makes them feel proud about the child who is motivating the visit.

Perceptions Are Paramount

It has been our experience when working with school districts that school administrators tend to focus on enriching the content knowledge of their teachers and supporting the growth of their pedagogical savvy. Likewise, when we work with teachers, the main question that they have is, “What are you going to give me that I can use in my classroom tomorrow morning with my students?” While this is a positive start to the professional growth of teachers, professional development cannot stop with strategies and more content knowledge. This is where an exploration of the FOK comes into the picture. Strategies are but a small piece of the pie.

When school administrators find their students achieving poorly on their standardized test scores, what do they do? They spend inordinate amounts of money on test preparation materials often created by the testing companies themselves ( Campbell, 2012). What is taught by these materials and suffices as professional development is typically a combination of testing strategies and content knowledge. If we were to ask educators to examine and report if there is sufficient emphasis on the learner in test prep materials, what would they say? We believe that what school administrators appear to be missing are the students sitting in front of the teachers, and who those students are as cultural beings. A teacher who is knowledgeable of all of the strategies known in the professional literature and is equally strong in the content knowledge of the subject must also view students from a position of respect, or both the content and the strategies are moot. That is, the students will not feel respected or valued, and they will not work as hard in that teacher’s classroom if the teacher does not view them from an FOK perspective.

Figure 1. Holistic Model

Figure 1 depicts the importance of pedagogy and content, but also adds that how teachers view and demonstrate respect for their students is equally important. A student entering a classroom that is taught by a teacher subscribing to a deficit model will immediately grasp that he or she is not wanted in that classroom, especially if he or she is an English learner, a learner with special needs, or a student of a different color than that of the teacher. Students are incredibly perspicacious and know what their teachers think of them. Students will know they are respected when they walk into a classroom and see work done by students decorating the walls. Classrooms with material that represents the different ethnicities and languages of the students demonstrate the teacher cares and respects the students’ backgrounds ( Bennett, 2011). Students in these classrooms will ultimately return the respect the teacher is providing by studying and working harder. Hence, although content and pedagogy are important, the teacher’s perspectives and how he or she promotes intercultural sensitivity is equally as important to student success.

The Future

Knowledge gives power to all involved in education. When we listen to each other we are privy to the story of others’ lives. It is in these stories that we find the cultural and social capital that sustain us through our understandings of others. We want to create a world that is a Paragon of  acceptance and tolerance. We need to model respect for our students, and one area where this can begin is by viewing students from an FOK perspective.

We leave you, the reader, with three questions:

1. What can you see yourselves doing in the future based on our discussion?
2. Can you identify three new steps you will take to improve your teaching and classroom experience for your students?
3. What challenges might you face in implementing these perceptual changes?

References

Bennett, C. I. (2011). Comprehensive multicultural education: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Campbell, L. P. (2012). Could millions going to high-stakes testing be better spent? Star-Telegram. Retrieved from http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/12/05/4463534/could-millions-going-to-high-stakes.html

Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. L. (1993). Inside outside: Teacher research and knowledge. New York and London: Teachers College Press.

Faltis, C. J., & Hudelson, S. J. (1998). Bilingual education in elementary and secondary school communities: Towards understanding and caring. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of the oppressed (Myra Bergman Ramos, Trans.). New York: Continuum.

Hirsch, E. D. (1988). Cultural literacy: What every American needs to know. New York: Vintage Books.

Hubbard, R. S., & Power, B. M. (2003). The art of classroom inquiry: A handbook for teacher-researchers (Revised ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Huntington, S. P. (2004). Who are we?: The challenges to America's national identity. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Krashen, S. (1985). The input hypothesis: Issues and implications. New York: Longman.

Moll, L. C., & González, N. (2003). Engaging life: A funds-of-knowledge approach to multicultural education. In James A. Banks & C.A.M. Banks (Eds.), Handbook on multicultural education (2nd ed.). Boston: Jossey-Bass.

Payne, R. K. (2001). A Framework for understanding poverty (Revised ed.). Highlands, TX: aha! Process, Inc.

Suárez-Orozco, C., & Qin-Hillard, D. (2003). Formulating identity in a globalized world. In Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco & Desiree Qin-Hillard (Eds.), Globalization: Culture & education in the new millennium. Berkely, CA: University of California Press & Ross Institute.

James Cohen is an assistant professor of ESL/bilingual education at Northern Illinois University. His research interests lie in the areas of bilingual and ESL education, literacy instruction of immigrant and nonnative English speakers, nonparallel schooled immigrant students, and undocumented immigrants.

Mayra C. Daniel is the bilingual coordinator and associate professor in the Department of Literacy at Northern Illinois University. She works with practicing and preservice teacher candidates to prepare them to teach and advocate for EL learners and their families.