Funds of Knowledge and Community Cultural Wealth - Exploring How Pre-Service Teachers can Work Effectively with Mexican and Mexican American Students

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by jayni

The article examines how pre-service teachers can work effectively with Mexican and Mexican American students. It combines funds of knowledge and community cultural wealth to show how these ideas can be implemented in teacher education. Emphasis is placed on historical context for understanding present educational conditions for specific communities. The discussion focuses on mostly white female pre-service teachers in schools with primarily Mexican and Mexican American student populations.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Purpose and context

Fieldwork experiences and sociocultural issues

Critiquing dysconscious racism and assumptions

Framing traditional teacher education programs

| | Funds of Knowledge and Community Cultural Wealth: Exploring how Pre-Service Teachers can Work Effectively
with Mexican and Mexican American Students 1 | | --- | --- | Stacy D. Saathoff, University of Arizona Abstract This article examines how pre-service teachers can work effectively with Mexican and Mexican American students. Using the foundation of funds of knowledge (González, Moll,& Amanti, 2005) and the critical race theory concept of community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005), the article weaves together these ideas to discuss how they can be implemented in teacher education programs. Added to the conversation is the importance of historical context in better understanding current educational situations affecting specific communities. Given the specific Southwest location, this article focuses on mostly white female pre-service teachers working in schools with a primarily Mexican and Mexican American student population. The purpose is to educate pre-service teachers and provide a close analysis of funds of knowledge and community cultural wealth as ways to give preservice teachers tools to investigate their own practice. Keywords: pre-service teachers, teacher education, funds of knowledge, community cultural wealth, historical context, Mexican and Mexican American students, culture We [teacher educators] need to expose new teachers to the cultural and social realities their students face, as well as the historical and systematic forces that have contributed to our deeply unequal public schooling system (Harding, 2013) . Introduction I begin this article with a few of my reflections as an instructor of pre-service teachers during one semester in particular that raised the questions I address in this article. During this semester I was teaching a course about different methods of classroom instruction to a group of mostly white female pre-service teachers. For this course pre-service teachers were required to complete 1. For the purposes of this paper Mexican refers to students who were born in Mexico and Mexican American refers to students ofa Mexican background born in the United States. Valenzuela (1999) articulates this distinction well in her study of highschool students in Houston, Texas, and addresses how Mexican and Mexican American (U.S. -born) youth in the United States divide themselves according to language, place of birth, etc. I realize that identities are highly contested, complex, and fluid depending on context. My intention is not to simplify these identities. a certain number of hours of fieldwork at local schools in the Tucson, Arizona area. Most students in these classrooms come from a Mexican or Mexican American background. For some of the pre-service teachers in this course their classroom experiences during that semester may have in fact been their first experience with students of color. Some of the pre-service teachers spoke of culture shock when entering these classrooms for fieldwork and used othering language when discussing the experience and the different students that they interacted with during fieldwork. Different in this case means non-white, from another socioeconomic background, and in some cases non-English speaking. As the above epigraph suggests, pre-service teachers need to deal with sociocultural issues that they may have never faced before. I define sociocultural issues asthe complex and often times overlapping issues such as race, language, gender, socioeconomic status, family values, documentation status, country of origin, religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. In this paper I am looking specifically at language, socioeconomic status, family values, country of origin, and ethnicity. As mentioned earlier some of the pre-service teachers I worked with during that semester used othering language and often talked about culture shock when they stepped into their fieldwork. The concern is that perhaps later they will enter their own classrooms without cri

FAQs

What theoretical framework does the article use to support effective teaching?

It draws on funds of knowledge and the concept of community cultural wealth to guide how teacher education can prepare pre-service teachers.

Why does the article stress historical context?

It argues that historical context helps better explain current educational situations affecting particular communities.

What problems does the article identify in some pre-service teachers’ approaches?

It highlights othering language, culture shock framing, and a tendency to avoid critically questioning race, assumptions, and ideologies about inequity.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by jayni