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With school populations across the country becoming increasingly representative of students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, new considerations must be made to promote equitable and engaged science learning for all students (National Academy of Science, National Academy of Engineering, & Institute of Medicine [NAEEM], 2011). The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) respond to a need for equity by explicitly calling on science teachers to “acquire effective strategies to include all students regardless of racial, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, socioeconomic, and gender backgrounds” (NGSS Lead States, 2013, Appendix D, p. 38). Some prior research has criticized the NGSS for simply being another set of standards that constrain what it means to know and do the discipline, and thus, do not allow for diverse ways of knowing that do not align with the standards (Rodriguez, 2013; Miller et al., 2018). As such, there needs to be greater understanding about what effective strategies teachers use to teach diverse learners within the context of a reform-oriented science education landscape that calls for actively engaging students in science practices (Ko & Krist, 2019). The overarching goal of this dissertation is to examine one such strategy, specifically how middle school science teachers in California provide opportunities for epistemic agency by drawing on students’ funds of knowledge. Epistemic agency is a construct which helps us to understand inequity in science education (Carlone et al., 2015). By attending to who has more or less power to direct the intellectual work of the classroom, we come to see patterns in who is afforded more or less power. One approach to attending to issues of power in the classroom and respecting children, their intelligence, and the communities they come from is to utilize a funds of knowledge perspective (Moll et al., 1992). A funds of knowledge approach to teaching and learning encourages teachers to draw on the cultural and community knowledges that students bring from outside of the classroom (e.g., home and family) to counteract deficit perspectives of diverse student populations. This mixed-methods study seeks to understand how teachers both draw on students’ funds of knowledge and enact their epistemic agency in the context of NGSS-aligned instruction. Participants included grades 6-8 science teachers across California, some who participated in targeted, extensive professional learning about the NGSS and some who received little training. The study was conducted in Fall 2018 through the end of Spring 2020. Data were collected and analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods that included teacher and student survey data, classroom observations, and teacher interviews. Overall, there were increases in teachers’ reported average implementation for epistemic agency and funds of knowledge across study years. However, while teachers reported increased enactment of epistemic agency over study years, students reported that the source of the questions and investigations in their class was more often derived from a source external to them (like a textbook, worksheet, or other material that was given by the teacher) rather than being derived from the students themselves or from their communities. Findings reinforce prior literature that question the NGSS as a set of standards that suggests students be the “do-ers” of science, so long as they are doing the science that is outlined in the standards (Berland et al., 2019; Lowell et al., 2020; Miller et al., 2018). Students’ ideas and questions were not frequently the basis of investigations in class and enactment of epistemic agency only went so far as eliciting student ideas that are recognizably aligned to the standards.

K–12 curriculum often presents science as a mundane and irrelevant subject in the lives of urban students of color. As such, researchers have begun to investigate the use of place-based methods to support meaningfulness and relevancy in science learning. This study provides an in-depth examination of features of design that can be used in science curriculum to ground learning in students’ lives and communities. Building on a funds of knowledge framework and Indigenous models of community-based science, this qualitative investigation examined the impact of these features of design on students’ conceptualizations of environmental and social justice issues in their communities. By examining the development and implementation of a year-long community-based science curriculum in one urban middle school, this study sought to illustratean approach to support educators who seek to make community curricular, and to connect science concepts and learning more succinctly to the contexts of their students’ lives, knowledge, and experiences. Data from this dissertation revealed strategies of curricular design that embed students’ communities and attune to their funds of knowledge as assets to the learning space, both in written materials and dialogue structure. Additionally, findings also provided a description of how students conceptualize and express their understandings and interpretations of community environmental and social justice issues, and their effects, when engaging in community-based curriculum. As the “why” regarding the use of funds of knowledge in science has been thoroughly explored in prior research, this study sought to speak to “how” science can be reimagined as a subject connected to students’ everyday lives and experiences through collaborative design. As such, this study also aimed to add to the literature that redefines ideas of what counts as scientific knowledge, and who holds scientific knowledge. Collectively, this work provides educators with curricular and pedagogical structures and practices to ground science learning in more meaningful and relevant contexts for urban students of color. As such, this dissertation offers recommendations for research, practice, and design for future work that explores the use of community-based science curricular and pedagogical strategies in urban school settings.

Black, Indigenous, People of Color first-generation (BIPOC FG) graduate students bring unacknowledged strengths into graduate school. These strengths can come from their lived experiences and the skills, goals, or values from their families and communities, also known as funds of knowledge. This dissertation drew on an extant data set to investigate how BIPOC FG graduate students acquire, convert, and apply their funds of knowledge within the context of a public Hispanic-Serving Institution. Thirteen BIPOC FG students (7 Latinx, 4 Multiethnic-racial, and 2 Asian American) participated in a semi-structured interview about their transition into graduate school, and current lived experiences in their graduate program. The narratives were analyzed, and their themes were used to create profiles that captured variations in the processes and strategies by which BIPOC FG graduate students acquire and convert their funds of knowledge. Findings revealed four different profiles that highlight the unique ways participants navigated graduate school. This study adds to the scarce literature on how graduate students convert their funds of knowledge to navigate their graduate programs.

The creation of the cisgender binary through the advent of settler colonialism in the land now known as the United States contributed to centuries of violence against and erasure of trans* communities. Structural oppression against trans*ness at a societal level contributes to similar modes of oppression in microcosms of society, including all sectors of education. Underexplored are the ways such societal dominance permeates classrooms in postsecondary environments, where deficit-based narratives of trans* identities are both reinforced in course curriculum and perpetuated by exclusionary pedagogical practices. Oftentimes expected to shoulder the burden of transgressing their own oppression, trans* college students’ identities are not understood as assets to their educational environments.This qualitative study uses a critical, asset-based approach to center the ways of knowing trans* college students develop throughout their lives as self-authored epistemologies they employ to navigate trans*phobic classroom environments. Through combining queer theory with Esteban-Guitart’s funds of identity framework, I explore how trans* students develop their funds of identity throughout their lives, and interrogate how they utilize their funds of identity in navigating collegiate classrooms. Data were collected through a combination of qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews, poetic reflections, and identity-mapping. Centering the narratives of 16 trans* undergraduate college students from across the United States and holding a range of social identities, findings underscore trans* students’ self-authored epistemologies as powerful assets they bring to their institutions of higher education.Findings show that trans* students develop a wealth of funds of identity throughout their lived experiences embodying their many social identities, including their trans*, racial, ethnic, class, and dis/ability identities. While individually unique, the similarities in where and how trans* collegians’ funds of identity were formed illustrate the many modes of knowledge production that trans* students tap into when traversing structural inequities in collegiate classrooms. These findings challenge deficit-based understandings of trans* students perpetuated in higher education scholarship, praxis, and policy, and similarly offer funds of identity as a valuable framework for asset-based work with trans* communities in higher education. Implications for actualizing research, praxis, and policy that affirms and liberates trans* realities are discussed.

Over the past few decades, scholars have argued that the knowledge valued in mathematics classrooms has left many students of color at the margins of mathematical expertise. We know that many Black children have struggled to perform in traditional mathematics classrooms, however, we know less about the mathematics they learn in their broader communities. Black children are far too often presumed to lack home educational resources, in general, including resources in support of mathematics. In this dissertation, I challenged deficit beliefs about Black children and their families by identifying and exploring their family math practices through the perspective of funds of knowledge and situated learning theoretical frameworks. Using semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and document/artifact collection, I explored the mathematical learning opportunities of eight, elementary school Black children and their families. I identified Black parents’ beliefs about mathematics and mathematics learning, and analyzed the interactions between children and their parents to examine the ways the children’s mathematical knowledge and identities were reinforced during home activities, including games, homework, sports, and household routines. The parents in the study employed various approaches to support their children’s mathematical learning in formal and informal ways; they also used four distinct strategies to support their children’s mathematical identities, including a race-conscious approach. Findings suggest that while some children recognized problem-solving in their informal activities, interview and observation data suggest many of the children in this study struggled to ‘find the math’ in informal activities, regardless of their level of success with school-based mathematics. Understanding Black children’s home mathematical resources and their beliefs about real-world mathematics can inform culturally relevant pedagogy in the classroom. This study also contributes to scholarship on Black parent engagement and extends the literature on mathematical funds of knowledge in the Black community.

Community colleges play a vital role in our nations system of higher education, enrolling half of the U.S. college going population (Cox, 2009, Deil-Amen, 2011). However, they have long been under researched, specifically little is known about the community college classrooms and the interactions that take place within them. Yet, the classroom is the primary point of contact between the institution and its students. In an effort to better understand student experiences within the community college sector in California––the nations largest higher education system––this study focuses on community college faculty and their pedagogical practices. Through an asset-based lens, this study, Funds of Teaching Identity: Teaching and Learning in California Community Colleges –– examines the community college classroom and the role of faculty in the various forms of student success. This case study of a community college faculty professional development workshop, uses qualitative research methods and multiple points data collection to analyze the experiences and teaching context of community college faculty. Findings from the study reveal a complex context for teaching that at time impedes the implementation of an asset-based pedagogical practices. However, this study also finds that use of faculty’s Funds of Teaching Identity combined with their disposition to express Pedagogies of Cari�o can contribute to transformative spaces for teaching and learning.

ABSTRACTPara Que Sepan Que Sabemos: Latin@ Parents Projecting Concientización Through the Activation and Negotiation of their Mediational Tools.byZuleyma Nayeli Carruba-RogelEmploying an ethnographic participant-observer approach, this study examines how 21 Latin@ immigrant parents in the Padres Líderes IV (Parent Leaders) program drew from individual and collective funds of knowledge and forms of capital to negotiate, develop, and present letters to their local school board regarding a funding priority in response to California school districts’ new Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP). To comprehensively appreciate the parents’ act of mediation, I adopted an embedded analysis approach by contextualizing their collaborative endeavors within the historical development of the program and the overarching political ecologies that led to this observed point in time. The Padres Líderes IV parents formed four groups, each addressing one of their LCAP budgetary priorities. These included: tutoring services, English Language Learner (ELL) reclassification, summer academic programs, and school safety. At the parent project level, I focus my analysis on one of the four groups (summer academic programs), due to its popularity with the parents and because it was facilitated by both an educator and parent-coordinator. Data collection included: ethnographic observations, fieldnotes, classroom reflections, gathered classroom artifacts, and collected video and audio recordings of the weekly coordinating meetings, program sessions, and post-session debriefs. Data collection extended for a period of four months. Five activities constitute the dynamic and interactive work in which parents engaged to construct letters representative of their group’s concerns (e.g., identifying the problem, need, target audience and significance and drafts of their letter). I identify key themes, which were included in this group’s final letter, and follow these themes throughout the length of the 12-week program to gauge if and how the program sessions influenced the parents’ collaborative endeavors. In turn, I hone in on dynamic group interactions to identify the tools parents utilized and the skills they employed to collectively negotiate the thematic progression of their LCAP proposal. Three key themes emerged in the parents’ letter to the school board: parents’ multifaceted concientización, a sense of feeling heard, and joint-partnership. The data collected informs that parents drew from their funds of knowledge and forms of capital to negotiate these themes into the body of their letter. First, in unprecedented ways, this ethnography illustrates how parents activate and enhance their vast mediational tools to collectively engage their local political ecologies. Second, this study highlights parents’ critical and intellectual capital in-the-making. Third, it reveals that parents’ concientización (or critical capital) is more than a critical state of awareness, but a formable and evolving type of capital that can be leveraged, personified, and utilized as a mediational tool. Fourth, I propose modifications to Barton et al.’s (2004) Ecologies of Parent Engagement (EPE) framework, as these alterations are intended to more comprehensively understand the work that families in parent engagement programs employ to mediate their political ecologies. Finally, this study uniquely elucidates the role of affect in parent empowerment and parents’ possession of communicative capital. Overall, this ethnographic study demonstrates how, through collaborative efforts and participation in a school-community partnership program, otherwise marginalized parents assert themselves as agents of change by engaging their local political ecologies to address their schooling needs.

The achievement gap in education has existed in our society for as long as we have chosen to pay attention to it. Certain demographic groups have always performed better on federal and state assessments compared to others. This study will focus on culturally proficient teaching, specifically, teacher dispositions and attitudes that contribute towards the successful learning of diverse students. Teaching diverse students is a challenging feat because of the fact that the majority of our educators come from different backgrounds, compared to the diverse students they teach. These differences related to race, class, and socioeconomic status affect students’ education, as the tremendous gap we know continues to exist. The intent of this dissertation is to: (a) provide a basic understanding of culturally responsive teaching for diverse students, (b) explore why an understanding of culturally responsive teaching strategies by teachers is crucial in order for all teachers to help diverse students to be successful, (c) explore how teacher perceptions; efficacy; and expectations of and towards students affect the learning of diverse students, (d) suggest ideas related to professional development and culturally responsive teaching that support teachers in successfully teaching diverse students. The literature presented here regarding culturally responsive teaching will focus on a number of methods with a specific concentration on social justice and the known barriers and solutions for successful use of culturally responsive teaching. Studies emphasize the importance of implementing culturally responsive teaching to help diverse students to be successful throughout their educational careers (Anderson, 2012; Bales & Saffold, 2011; Bergeron, 2008; Bui & Fagan, 2013; Gay, 2002 & 2010; Hynds, Sleeter, Hindle, Savage, Penetito, & Meyer, 2011; Bennett, 2012; Santamaria, 2009; and Siwatu, 2011). For these reasons, it is crucial for all teachers to know that culturally responsive teaching strategies, along with their inherent dispositions and positive perceptions will help diverse students the most to be academically successful. This is why this proposed study is so important to add to this body of research.

This ten-month ethnographic study examines how four Latina immigrant mothers and their young children employed literacy practices within and beyond a two-generation program. Two-generation programs generally serve marginalized families by instructing them on school-based language and literacy practices. This study approaches literacy from sociocultural (i.e., what people do with literacy) and multimodal perspectives (i.e., print, visual, oral, media, and online literacies). The study examines a) the kinds of school-based literacy practices--or aspects of them--that mothers took up in out-of-school contexts; b) the kinds of out-of-school-literacy practices--or aspects of them--that mothers brought to the school site; and c) the continuities and discontinuities of literacy practices across contexts. Data was collected through observations, ethnographic interviews, document analysis, and video. Findings reveal that in out-of-school contexts, some of the school-based literacy practices learned at Nuestra Comunidad were replicated, and/or modified, while others were not taken up. The varying ways that mothers took up school-based literacy practices was most often influenced by participants' cultural values related to language and literacy and their purposes or goals for engaging in particular literacy activities. The study also found that when mothers employed out-of-school literacy practices at Nuestra Comunidad they were met with resistance due to conflicting ideologies regarding appropriate language and literacy activities and curricula. Mothers still brought in their out-of-school literacy practices in clandestine manners or had to modify their practices. When focusing on marginalized groups, traditional family literacy research has either a) privileged school-based literacy practices and their replication in the home setting; or b) emphasized the cultural and linguistic wealth of marginalized families' home literacy practices but highlighted the differences between these practices and those employed and valued in school (Auerbach, 1989; Gadsden, 1998, 2001). This study looks beyond the simple replication of literacy practices from school to home and vice versa. Rather, this research provides insight into the rich literacy practices that Latino families engage in throughout the many contexts of their lives by highlighting the complex ways in which literacy practices move across spaces.