Continuidad Educativa y Fondos de Conocimiento de Familias Venezolanas en Chile

Abstract

The number of foreign students in educational establishments has increased in recent years. In this context, this study asks about the Funds of Knowledge (FoK) of Venezuelan families living in the south of Chile, as well as about the continuities/discontinuities with the educational practices of the Chilean public school. Using qualitative methodology with an ethnographic focus, a total of fifteen interviews were carried out with five Venezuelan families, in addition to two group interviews with the teachers of the schools where the children of these family’s study. The results obtained through content analysis indicate: high continuity of practices, means and ends between families and schools; high appreciation by teachers of these migrant families, in relation to the sophisticated Fok they possess associated with their cultural capital and their good school performance, in contrast to local schoolchildren. This suggests greater continuity between Venezuelan households and schools than between Chilean households and schools. In this sense, the adherence to social justice highlights the need to also attend to the contexts in which local students are developing, considering integrating their own FoK into curricular projects.