Review of Norma González, Luis C. Moll, Cathy Amanti (eds.), Funds of Knowledge: Theorizing Practices in Households, Communities and Classrooms
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This quote, which opens Chapter 2 of González et al.'s edited collection targeted at teachers and their educators, captures both the spirit and the promise of this volume on Funds of Knowledge research. Many readers are likely familiar with this research tradition, which invites educators outside the walls of the classroom to encounter the rich and varied cultural resources within their students' communities in order to foster educators' understanding of these resources as strengths rather than as cultural or cognitive deficits. The authors of these pieces are teachers, teacher educators and researchers, who explore their personal and professional journeys as they, in Bateson's (2000: 81) words, 'crossed the lines of strangeness' during this multi-year, multi-sited ethnographic project documenting and theorising their students' cultural histories and practices, and seeking ways to incorporate those cultural resources into their classrooms.