A funds of knowledge approach to supporting children’s learning, development and wellbeing

This self-paced course explores a funds of knowledge approach and what it means for educators’ work with children and families, particularly those in high-poverty and culturally and linguistically diverse communities.   

How many hours of study are suggested? 

This course will take around 2 hours of study.  

You have one year from the date of enrolment to complete this course. 

Course overview 

By completing this course, you will be able to: 

• Understand what it means to adopt a funds of knowledge approach to working with children and families, including identifying the funds of knowledge in your own family. 
• Articulate the difference between a child’s interests and their funds of knowledge.   
• Identify and utilise strategies to encourage families to share their funds of knowledge and gain insights into families’ everyday and significant cultural practices. 
• Appreciate how genuine engagement with children and families’ funds of knowledge can be incorporated into learning experiences that support children’s learning, development, and wellbeing. 
• Critically reflect on your own and your service’s current and potential approaches to using funds of knowledge to support wellbeing, learning, and development outcomes for children.  

This course is organised into the following chapters:    

• Overview and introduction   
• What is a funds of knowledge approach?  
• Why is understanding and using children’s funds of knowledge important?  
• Putting a funds of knowledge approach into practice  
• Challenges in putting a funds of knowledge approach into practice and responses to these challenges  
• Conclusion and final reflections   
• Useful resources and reference list  

The course is delivered as self-paced online training for early childhood educators and teachers offering a rich blend of multimodal learning and activities to consolidate professional learning. 

Meet your presenters

Leonie Arthur Leonie has worked as an early childhood educator in long day care, preschool, and the early years of school, including teaching in Aboriginal communities in Sydney and the Northern Territory. She is one of the authors of Programming and Planning in Early Childhood Settings and was part of the team that developed the first edition of the Early Years Learning Framework. She was a lecturer in early childhood education at the University of Western Sydney, where her research focused on effective pedagogies for learning and teaching in low socioeconomic communities, and the role of collaborative action research in educators’ professional learning and curriculum design.

Christine Woodrow  Associate Professor Christine Woodrow is a senior researcher in the Centre for Educational Research and Lead Researcher (Early Years) in the Transforming Early Education (TeEACH) Research Centre, at Western Sydney University. Christine’s research focusses on early childhood education policy, pedagogy and professionalism, with special interests in the ways educators promote family engagement; and promote equity through innovation and culturally responsive pedagogies.  Christine’s expertise in participative research methodologies underpins her leadership of diverse research projects in Chile and Australia that engage early childhood practitioners as researchers of their own practices and agents of change.

Acknowledgment

The Engaging Families research team would like to acknowledge:

• Our research participants, including families, educators and community members
• Our research institutions - UNSW Sydney, Western Sydney University, the University of Sydney, and Griffith University
• Our research partners – KU Children’s Services, Family Day Care Australia, Goodstart Early Learning, Childcare & Kindergarten (C&K), Early Childhood Australia
• Our creative team – the still and moving images used within this course were provided by Jamie James, Nisa East, and Sivani Yaddanapudi
• Our funders – Australian Research Council and NSW Government

APST Aligned | NESA Recognised

2 hour contribution

This course aligns to Standard 1 (Know students and how they learn) and Standard 4 (Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments) of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.

CELA is a NESA recognised PD provider.