Funds of knowledge/identity pedagogies and social justice in Dutch primary education

Since 2017, primary school teachers and researchers in Amsterdam have collaborated to get a better understanding of funds of knowledge (FoK) pedagogies and to develop concrete guidelines and materials that support FoK teaching practices. In this chapter, we reflect on this collaboration, and what it has yielded in terms of knowledge and practices. Over the years, our approach developed from an FoK into a funds of identity (FoI) approach, and we tailored it to different types of schools. In schools that work in a learner-centered way, teachers are able to use more spontaneous pedagogies; for schools with a textbook-driven curriculum, we developed concrete lesson examples (“funds cards”). Assignments that make use of digital media to find and build on students’ FoI were recently added. We also make use of an increasing number of research instruments: Student and teacher interviews, well-being-related student questionnaires, classroom observations, and more recently a questionnaire that assesses the attention paid to FoI by the teacher. In terms of effects found, the results are mixed. In this chapter, we also reflect on some challenges we encounter and on the question of what way these practices can contribute to “social justice.”