Funds of Identity
Connecting Meaningful Learning Experiences in and out of School

This book suggests a strategy to put students' practices, cultures, and identities in the center of a twenty-first-century education.

Moisès Esteban-Guitart (Author)

9781107147119, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 18 August 2016

150 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.5 cm, 0.38 kg

'Reading this book was one of those rare light-bulb moments: it put into words what I had been thinking for many years but had been struggling to articulate.' Adam Poole, Educational Review

Drawing on research conducted mostly in Catalonia (Spain), Moisès Esteban-Guitart outlines a distinct vision of education enhanced by students' identities, which leads to a discussion of the sociocultural factors that shape the processes of learning. He brings these ideas to life by examining traits of a mobile-centric society, the present-day ecology of learning, and his three metaphors of learning (connecting knowledge, connecting minds, and connecting communities). He then suggests a number of basic principles regarding learning for the twenty-first century based on prior literature in the learning sciences. He presents the terms 'funds of identity' and 'meaningful learning experiences', and reviews the funds of knowledge approach and the Vygotskian basis for understanding identity. In the second part of the book, he illustrates a number of strategies for detecting students' funds of identity and their meaningful learning experiences, and describes some practical experiences based on the theoretical framework he adopted.

Introduction: my own funds of identity
1. Learning in a mobile-centric society
2. From funds of knowledge to funds of identity
3. How to detect funds of identity
4. How to use students' funds of identity pedagogically
Final remarks: identities at the heart of education.

Subject Areas: Social, group or collective psychology [JMH], Family psychology [JMF], Child & developmental psychology [JMC], Society & culture: general [JF]