Constructing Community Knowledge by Exploring a Group of High School Students’ Funds of Knowledge

Abstract

This two-cycle action research explores how Colombian students from rural and urban areas construct community knowledge by exploring funds of knowledge using dialogue journals. Thirty-three seventh graders from an urban school participated in the first phase and 19 sixth graders from a rural school and 18 eighth graders from an urban school in the second phase. Data were gathered through journals, artifacts, audio recordings, narratives, focus groups, and interviews. Results revealed how students learned to see and re-signify their communities and territory by exploring the knowledge held by their families and community members. Then dialogue journals were valuable tools to verbalize and communicate their perceptions and understandings about their communities and funds of knowledge.