Journal Table 1- A) Describe the demographic characteristics of your clinical setting.

REVISED
Within my clinical placement I have a total of 9 students. It is a smaller
class because it is used as an extra time during the day for students to catch
up on homework and other assignments. Out of these 9 students there are 6
who are Caucasian, 2 African American Students, and 1 Asian American
student. It is clear that this class is not extremely diverse. Also, all the
students but one are in 9th grade so they are 14 or 15 and there is one
sophomore, who is 15 or 16. As for gender, this class is male dominate
with 7 males and 2 females.

B) What kinds of personal/cultural knowledge or popular knowledge

influence your thinking about the ethnically and racially diverse student(s)
you will be working with in your clinical setting?

I have plenty of personal, cultural and popular knowledge that could

influence my thinking but I will choose not to allow the negative popular
knowledge to influence me. The reason I want to stray away from the
influence of popular knowledge is because I believe that most of it puts
minorities in a negative light and I do not want to be influenced by those
statements. The personal knowledge that I will bring to my clinical setting
will be mainly my experience growing up in a community that was not
very diverse but was still extremely inclusive. My community taught me a
lot about other cultures and I believe that this prior knowledge will be
beneficial when working with racially diverse students in my clinical
setting.

C) How can the racialization of the student(s) you will be working with be
reinforced or challenged by any of his/her/their other demographic
characteristics from the intersectionality graphic?

As I reviewed the intersectionality graphic I came to the conclusion that

racialization of the students I will be working with will reinforce their
demographic characteristics. By this I noticed three sections of the graphic
stood out for this specific example. I noticed that when I was talking to
Hannah she talked down on herself quite a bit when it came to academics
and only had something positive to say about herself if it had to do with
track and field. Hannah is an African American student who seems to
believe that African American’s are not people who thrive academically
and only thrive athletically. I also noticed that unfortunately because
Hannah and Kevin, who are both African American students in my clinical
placement, are technically working with a special education teacher, and
would be considered to have and exceptionality; they believe they fit the
rationalization. Unfortunately, in this situation the racialization will be
reinforced.
D) How can the Fund of Knowledge approach help you see a student’s
cultural background as an asset to his or her learning?

I think the funds of knowledge approach will help me to see and

understand Hannah and Kevin’s cultural background because it will allow
me to connect their leaning to their experiences, social networks, and their
household dynamic. This is something that will connect their learning to
their culture and I believe this will be extremely beneficial for Hannah and
Kevin. One strong example is taking their unique cultural knowledge bases
and connecting other lessons to them to truly make their cultural
background an asset to their learning.

E) Discuss the possible Activities to Investigate Funds of Knowledge that

you will possibly use to identify the Funds of Knowledge possessed by
your student(s) you choose to study.

I chose two activities from the Activities to Investigate Funds of

Knowledge. More specifically, I chose to discuss the kinds of social
networks that the students’ family and community member identify as
important to help them deal with changing or challenging circumstances. I
feel like by understanding who they identify as important or how they
would typically cope or handle a difficult situation would help me better
relate and work through challenging situations they might have
academically. By better understanding the social networks and the
important people in the child’s life it will be easier to identify the Funds of
Knowledge possessed by the students in my study. I also chose to ask them
about the cultural traditions, practices, or celebrations that respondents,
their household members, and/or their community members engage in that
provide them with a sense of cultural identity. I chose this activity because
by learning about the students cultures it will better help me learn the
funds of knowledge they each possess.

F) Discuss the EDFD 401 Developmental and/or Learning theorists who

you can use to give a rationale for our choice of said activities.

I think that Bandura’s theory shows that children learn by observing and
the environment they grow up in so this is why I think it would be useful
to discuss their social networks as well as cultural traditions. These are two
things that children will learn from growing up and they will learn by
observing others in their networks and by participating in cultural
traditions. This is how the child will develop their funds of knowledge. I
think that both of these activities rely heavily on observation and that
relates very well to Bandura’s theory.