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Cultural Studies of Science Education

, Volume 11, Issue 1, pp 41–59 | Cite as

STEM learning research through a funds of knowledge lens

  • Marta Civil
Article
First Online:

Abstract

This article examines STEM learning as a cultural process with a focus on non-dominant communities. Building on my work in funds of knowledge and mathematics education, I present three vignettes to raise some questions around connections between in-school and out-of-school mathematics. How do we define competence? How do task and environment affect engagement? What is the role of affect, language, and cognition in different settings? These vignettes serve to highlight the complexity of moving across different domains of STEM practice—everyday life, school, and STEM disciplines. Based on findings from occupational interviews I discuss characteristics of learning and engaging in everyday practices and propose several areas for further research, including the nature of everyday STEM practices, valorization of knowledge, language choice, and different forms of engagement.

Keywords

Mathematics education Funds of knowledge In-school and out-of-school learning Non-dominant groups STEM practices Valorization of knowledge 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the reviewers for their very insightful comments and helpful suggestions. The research reported here was funded in part by The National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity and Second Language Learning and by the Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence (CREDE), through the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) of the U.S. Department of Education, under Cooperative Agreement No. R117G10022 and PR/Award No. R306A6000 (for Funds of Knowledge for Teaching project and project Bridge); as well as by the National Science Foundation, grant ESI-0424983 (for CEMELA (Center for the Mathematics Education of Latinos/as)). The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of MathematicsThe University of ArizonaTucsonUSA

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