Sliding down troublesome funds of knowledge and climbing up powerful skills: Identifying the new 'snakes and ladders' of Criminology teaching in an English FE college

Tazewell, Sally

Abstract

This research is an ethnographically-informed case study which seeks to understand how academically successful and emotionally supportive learning environments can be created for Level 3 Criminology students. It draws upon a funds of knowledge framework to interrogate the role of funds of identity, powerful knowledges and academic literacies in developing safe and motivating learning environments. It takes as its focus a single Level 3 Year 1 cohort and asks what are the funds of knowledge and funds of identity the students bring with them, and to what extent do these help or hinder learning. It goes on to examine the curriculum in terms of the powerful knowledges which students must acquire to do well, alongside the explicit and implicit academic skills needed to turn subject knowledge into exam board success. The research then turns to the physical, socio-emotional and digital learning environments, thinking about how students acquire the capacity to negotiate these in individualised, localised and glocalised ways. In the findings, troublesome funds of knowledge are identified in relation to student and teacher personal experiences of offending, witnessing and victimisation, while powerful skills are elicited from the gaps between explicit ways of working and valued assessment conventions. Finally, the discussion turns to how students’ acquired knowledges, both powerful and from informal funds, can be combined with an extended view of the course (from pre-induction to commencing higher studies or employment) and of the students themselves (to include parent-carers and out-of-college learning environments) in order to develop a range of practical processes which are supportive of personal wellbeing alongside academic success.

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Apr 4, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 2, 2025
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11880941
• Award Date: Jan 2, 2025