2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This NSF-funded study sought to explore the ways in which middle school teachers developed an understanding and appreciation for funds of knowledge. The study provided teachers with opportunities to collaborate with a group of researchers with expertise in bilingual education, engineering education and learning sciences to create activities that integrated a funds of knowledge approach. To counter the idea that language and STEM content are mutually exclusive, we sought to challenge deficit models in STEM by co-constructing learning experiences with teachers and acknowledging the wealth of knowledge that Latino/a/x students possess.
In this paper, we focus on how middle school teachers from science, language arts and social sciences integrated aspects of funds of knowledge and STEAM to develop and implement an activity. Eight teachers from a STEAM-focused middle school near the U.S.-Mexico border were recruited to participate in this study. The research question that guided this study was: What strategies were most helpful in developing teachers’ understanding and elicitation of funds of knowledge? In this paper, we focus on four of the teachers that were part of the project throughout the four years. The four teachers included one computer science/science teacher (female, white), one bilingual mathematics teacher (female, Latina), one bilingual social science teacher (male, Latino), and one 7th grade Spanish teacher (female, Latina). We collected data from classroom observations, teacher interviews, group discussions with the research team, and teacher meeting check-ins. For this paper, we focused on classroom observations and teacher interviews. The data collected were analyzed using inductive and deductive coding, starting with a list of a-priori codes. Four members of the research team analyzed the data using Dedoose after agreement was reached on a singular coding scheme.
Data suggests that teachers were already taking actions to elicit students’ funds of knowledge in different ways, such as facilitating classroom discussions with prompts and scaffolds. In addition, teachers were reminded that language is an important fund of knowledge that should be considered as a fundamental part of learning STEAM-related content. The most helpful strategies included reading materials related to funds of knowledge, the professional development workshops, the one-on-one meetings with teachers, and the coaching strategies used by the research team. Overall, these strategies let to the use of role models, bringing their own personal experiences into STEAM teaching, using anecdotes, co-creating materials with researchers, and engaging in cross-disciplinary collaborations to recognize and elicit funds of knowledge. The results from this research suggest teachers can develop STEAM units or activities by observing and documenting the spaces, practices, and knowledge familiar to their students, particularly their U.S.-Mexico border experiences (i.e., transfronterize experiences).