Drawing on Funds of Knowledge and Creating Third Spaces to Engage Students with Academic Literacies

Authors

  • Mary Jane Curry University of Rochester

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v4i1.125

Keywords:

Applied Linguistics

Abstract

The articles in the first section of this special issue contribute to a blurring of the boundaries between well-established binaries in education: between students’ home life and school life, between teachers and students, between academic essays and more informal modes of discourse, and between researchers and those they study. Grounded in specific local and historical contexts, these papers generate inspiring connections to two theories - funds of knowledge (Moll et al., 1992) and third spaces (Gutierrez, Rymes, and Larson, 1995) - that have much to offer research in academic literacies by pushing beyond traditional binary oppositions. In the funds of knowledge project (Gonzalez, Moll, and Amanti, 2005), teachers are trained to research the resources and practices of students’ home communities and to draw on these resources in curriculum development and teaching. This approach complements the notion of the Third Space in which students’ unofficial discourses (or ‘counterscripts’) are ratified and incorporated into the work of the classroom alongside official school discourses and practices.

Author Biography

  • Mary Jane Curry, University of Rochester

    Mary Jane Curry is Assistant Professor of Foreign Language/TESOL Education at the Warner Graduate School of Education at University of Rochester, New York. She co-authored Teaching academic writing: A toolkit for higher education (Routledge, 2003) and has published articles on academic literacy in TESOL Quarterly, Written Communication, Studies in the Education of Adults, the Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses, Literacy and Numeracy Studies, and Community College Review

References

Amanti, C. (2005) Beyond a beads and feathers approach. In N. Gonzalez, L. Moll and C, Amanti (eds) Funds of Knowledge: theorizing practices in households, communities, and classrooms 131–141. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Curry, M. J. (2001) Preparing to be privatized: the hidden curriculum of a community college ESL writing class. In E. Margolis (ed.) The Hidden Curriculum in Higher Education 175–192. New York: Routledge.

Curry, M. J. (2003) Skills, access, and ‘basic writing’: a community college case study from the United States. Studies in the Education of Adults 35(1): 5–18.

Curry, M. J. (2007) A ‘head start and a credit’: analyzing cultural capital in the basic writing/ESOL classroom. In J. Albright and A. Luke (eds) Pierre Bourdieu and Literacy Education 275–95. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Gonzalez, N., Moll, L. and Amanti, C. (eds) (2005) Funds of Knowledge: theorizing practices in households, communities, and classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Gutierrez, K., Rymes, B. and Larson, J. (1995) Script, counterscript, and underlife in the classroom: James Brown versus Brown v. Board of Education. Harvard Educational Review 65(3): 445–471.

Moll, L., Amanti, C., Neff, D. and
Gonzalez, N. (1992) Funds of knowledge for teaching: using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory Into Practice 31: 132–141.

Velez-Ibanez, C. and Greenberg, J. (2005) Formation and transformation of funds of knowledge. In N. Gonzalez, L. Moll and C. Amanti (eds) Funds of Knowledge: theorizing practices in households, communities, and classrooms 47–69. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Published

2015-09-14

Issue

Section

Reflections

How to Cite

Curry, M. J. (2015). Drawing on Funds of Knowledge and Creating Third Spaces to Engage Students with Academic Literacies. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 4(1), 125-129. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v4i1.125

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