Professor Julie Waddington

Funds of knowledge and identity theories have been harnessed in language education to combat deficit perspectives of underrepresented and underachieving students and to advance towards more culturally responsive and decolonial pedagogies. Originally conceived to address the achievement gap in border contexts in the United States, recent developments across the globe have adapted theories and praxis to meet the challenges faced by twenty-first century societies. As a theoretical framework, funds of knowledge and identity is a strengths-based approach that recognises the learning embedded in everyday practices in the home and beyond. This framework is based on the simple premise that all people, no matter what their background, have culturally and historically accumulated knowledge which is essential for their functioning. Unfortunately, this knowledge is often overlooked or rendered invisible within formal educational contexts, generating disconnections between in-school and out-of-school experiences which impact negatively on student motivation and engagement in their own learning. From this perspective, the exclusion of learners’ home languages in forced English-medium contexts may be counterproductive to learning, since languages are not only understood to be a unique form of knowledge, but also a medium through which other knowledge is conveyed. Recognising and valuing students’ and teachers’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds and resources is considered crucial for promoting meaningful experiences that build on existing knowledge to promote academic success and social inclusion. After providing a brief introduction to these theories, this presentation will showcase experiences from different contexts which have applied funds of knowledge and identity approaches to promote more culturally responsive English language learning and teaching.