Funds of Knowledge for Teaching in Latino Households

Conceptualizing the households of working-class Latino students as being rich in funds of knowledge has had transformative consequences for teachers, parents, students, and researchers. Teachers' qualitative, ethnographic study of their own students' households has unfolded as a viable method for bridging the gap between school and community. The focus of the home visit is to gather details about the accumulated knowledge base that each household assembles in order to ensure its own subsistence. Teachers also participate in study groups that offer a forum for the collective analysis of the household findings, and they form curriculum units that tap into the household funds of knowledge. New avenues of communication between school and home foster confianza, or mutual trust.