Funds of Knowledge Household Interviews¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

Teachers visit students' homes as participant-observers "with the purpose of identifying and documenting existing knowledge", unlike traditional home visits about a student problem. In the Tucson project each teacher chose two or three students, conducted three two-hour interviews with each student and family about the household's origins and social and labor histories, and wrote field notes afterward.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Teachers choose two or three students each at their own discretion.
• Conduct three two-hour interviews with each student and his or her family.
• Write field notes after each interview for discussion in the after-school labs; some teachers also kept a personal field journal to monitor their reflexive process.
• Enter the home as a learner, willing to interact, prepared to document what is learned.

Constraints¶

• Teachers may feel discomfort entering a household like a private investigator and asking a wide range of questions.
• Requires many after-school hours for interviews and writing.

Target Learners¶

• Language minority and working-class students and their families
• Teachers acting as researchers

Target Learning Goals¶

• Document household funds of knowledge such as farming, construction, trade, business, and finance
• Build teacher understanding of households' sociopolitical and economic context

Affordances¶

• Funds Of Knowledge

Related Strategies¶

• Home Visits
• Funds Of Knowledge Teacher Research Model
• Build mathematics instruction on children's funds of knowledge uncovered through home visits and teacher study groups

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Funds of Knowledge: Learning from Language Minority Households. ERIC Digest. (1994). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED367146