Exploring the funds of knowledge in the Chinese community in Australia for Mandarin teaching and learning in schools

Abstract

This research reports on an exploration of the "funds of linguistic and cultural knowledge" in a Chinese community, with the purpose of building school/community partnership to utilize community resources for Mandarin teaching and learning in Australian schools. The research originally derived from the researcher's personal experience of learning English as a second language, in which the language environment and applications of language were found to be the most important factors that determined learning success. During her stint of research in the Western Sydney Region as a volunteer Mandarin teacher-researcher, she found that there was a lack of teaching and learning resources in the school, and that there was a need to build a systematic model to support the efficient utilization of community-based resources for educational purposes. This research focused on how to explore resources from the Chinese community through school/community partnership. Case study was employed as the research methodology for this study. Interviews, reflective journals and document reviews were used to collect data and to triangulate the data sources. The research findings were discussed and reported in accordance to four contributory research questions: essential criteria, the forms of funds of knowledge, contradictory issues, and the significance of partnerships. The key finding of the study is presented in the form of a school/community partnership Model, which provides an answer to the principal research question: "How can cooperation be built up between schools and local Chinese communities to support Mandarin teaching and learning in Australian schools?" This study contributes to our understanding of school/community partnerships to enhance teaching and learning Mandarin in Australian schools. It reveals the real situation of partnerships in the target school community, in which welcoming attitudes coexisted with poor actions. It argues that the Model of school/community partnerships can be used to explore linguistic and cultural knowledge in Chinese communities, with significant implications for improving the quality of Mandarin teaching and learning in schools.

Date of Award	2011
Original language	English