Everyone approaches life and learning from a unique perspective. We all see the world through a lens based on prior experience and culture—and we all have knowledge, strengths and talents that can be harnessed and extended.
Such is the basis of a funds of knowledge approach, identified as a key pedagogical approach in The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) V2.0. It is a strengths-based approach, where early childhood educators identify and build on children's existing knowledges and skills to build connections and create opportunities for new learning.
The EYLF V2.0 states:
“Funds of knowledge are the historically accumulated experiences and understandings that an individual has and includes abilities, skills, bodies of knowledge, life experiences and cultural ways of interacting. A child’s funds of knowledge are often described as a ‘virtual backpack’ of all the life experiences and knowledge they bring into the early childhood setting.” (p. 66)
Complementing a child’s interests and curiosities, funds of knowledge can contribute to a child’s ways of being, belonging and becoming. They can include family and community experiences, knowledge and understandings, dispositions, skills and language.
Fostering confidence, belonging and identity
Early childhood educators play an important role in recognising and harnessing the potential of a child’s funds of knowledge, helping them to become confident and involved learners with a strong sense of identity.
The approach promotes equity and inclusion and is of particular value for children and families experiencing poverty as it can help to bridge the gap between home and the education setting.
Some of the underpinning principles of a funds of knowledge approach are that it:
To quote the EYLF V2.0 again:
Educators who know and build on children’s funds of knowledge help them to feel secure, confident and connected to familiar people, places, events and understandings. This reinforces each child’s sense of belonging. (p. 24)
Backed by research
The value of the funds of knowledge approach is also identified in a recent academic research study titled ‘Engaging Families in Early Education’ (EFEE). The research addresses the challenges faced by families and children living through hard times—particularly examining how these families can best access ECEC services.
CELA’s professional learning courses on Engaging Families in Early Education address some of the barriers to inclusion experienced by families living in poverty, and how early educators can support equitable access to early education. The second course in the series of 5 provides practical strategies for using families' funds of knowledge to support children's learning and development.
The course is presented by early childhood education researchers Associate Professor Christine Woodrow and Dr Leonie Arthur, both from Western Sydney University. They discuss how to leverage the unique strengths and knowledge of families to enrich children’s educational experiences.
They identify that a funds of knowledge approach is important because it:
As Dr Arthur states, all families have a wealth of experience and knowledge connected to their everyday lives.
“As children interact with everyday activities and significant people within families and communities, educators, peers and popular culture, they create their own social worlds and funds of knowledge and identity,” she says.
“Understanding the resources children bring to the early childhood setting, both as funds of knowledge and funds of identity, is critical to the provision of a meaningful curriculum that contributes to equity and social justice for children from high poverty and linguistically diverse communities.”

Educators as information gatherers
It can sometimes be challenging for educators to gather enough information from families to identify a child’s funds of knowledge—and to use that information in a way that honours inclusion. Depending on an educator’s own experience and background, some funds of knowledge may be familiar, others may be new, and some may even be confronting.
Overall, however, educators do a good job at engaging in meaningful conversations with families, according to Professor Marianne Fenech, from the Sydney School of Education Social Work, University of Sydney.
As a researcher on the Engaging Families in Early Education research, Prof. Fenech noticed that participating educators worked hard to create inclusive opportunities with families and children.
“We observed how educators partnered with families, going well beyond the passing conversations at the beginning or end of the day or at the beginning of the year,” she says.
“Educators demonstrated an in-depth understanding of what life was like at home for families, taking it into account in the early childhood setting, and using this information as relevant to understanding a family’s funds of knowledge.”
She says that by actively engaging with families and understanding their experiences, educators can build cultural safety for a child and for families. It may involve inviting families to participate in early childhood activities.
“What educators were doing well was identifying family strengths—what life was like at home and bringing that knowledge into the curriculum. We had parents involved in services in whichever way they felt comfortable—perhaps cooking or doing origami—and services used that to build upon an understanding of difference and diversity, as well as wellbeing and belonging.”
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Further reading:
New research can help you support vulnerable children and families
Engaging Families in Early Education research study
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