5.3.2 Developing interventions related to mismatches between a student's or group's culture and the school curriculum

If you think mismatches between a student's or group's culture and the school curriculum might be contributing to the puzzling situation, you might consider including students' home-based funds of knowledge or integrating broader ethnic content into your curriculum.

Funds of Knowledge and similar approaches

Articles (Amanti, 1995; Craig, 1995; Floyd-Tenery, 1995; Hensley, 1995; Gittings, 1995) and chapters (González, Moll, & Amanti, 2004a; McIntyre, Rosebery, & González, 2001) by teachers who have used the Funds of Knowledge approach have discussed developing interventions using household knowledge from students' communities. Ballenger (1999, pp. 41-81) reported on a series of teacher research studies involving her Haitian students' literacy learning. González (1995), in her summary of what has been learned through the Funds of Knowledge project, stressed that curricula developed from research on household knowledge should be designed to enhance the regular curriculum rather than to replace it and that the goal of classroom applications is "to improve students' engagement in learning by framing the curricula and pedagogy with familiar contextual clues" (1995, p. 6).

Adding broader ethnic content

Banks (2004) provided an overview of different approaches to integrating ethnic content into the curriculum. Hefflin (2002) reported on the process of using culturally relevant pedagogy with African American children's literature in an elementary classroom. Ladson-Billings (1994) described how eight exemplary teachers of African American students incorporate culturally relevant "conceptions of knowledge" into their teaching. Mehan, Lintz, Okamoto, and Wills (2001, pp. 133-136) described the experiences of three teachers trying to use a "multicultural" history text in their classes.

Kumashiro (2001) discussed some problems with traditional approaches to adding ethnic content in the curriculum. He raised some useful issues to consider and offered some strategies for approaching ethnic content in a more critical way.

If you haven't read the CIP pages for Step 5 or Step 5.3, please do so because they provide information about developing inverventions for your CIP study.

Success Stories & CIP studies Related to Mismatches Between Cultures

Reconsider question: 3.3.2 
Gather more information on this question: 4.3.2 
Step 6-Monitor Intervention(s) 
Guide for Reading Step 4 and Step 5 Pages