Developing funds of knowledge: Social justice educational practices in the Spanish context

Abstract

The Funds of Knowledge (FoK), since their origin in the early nineties, have aimed at developing sensitive and contextualized school educational practices to the family experiences of culturally diverse students. From a sociocultural approach, the program has become a benchmark in educational social justice practices, assuming a critical approach and placing structural inequalities, power relations and the perspective of cultural deficit in education at the center of its transformative action. In turn, it proposes a theoretical-methodological framework to recover the dignity and representativeness of families in schools, through their knowledge, resources and strengths. The procedure consists of visiting the families by the teachers and collecting the funds of knowledge through interviews and ethnographic techniques, to then develop didactic units in the school context. Next, three educational experiences in the Spanish context are presented, guided by the FoK approach, where original, redistributive and representative pedagogical practices are highlighted with the aim of improving educational processes of cultural congruence and the development of inclusive cultures.