The place of interests, agency and imagination in funds of identity theory

ABSTRACT Funds of identity is a recent entrant to the field of identity theories. Located within sociocultural theory, the concept developed from the notion of funds of knowledge to consider all life experiences that collectively shape identity development. It draws attention to the relationships, settings, experiences, and cultural tools and symbols that are personally meaningful to people, and ways these mediate engagement with identity development. I make two contributions to advancing funds of identity theory. First, I provide empirical evidence with respect to a very young child’s engagement with funds of identity. I report findings related to Zoe, a child who participated with her family in a qualitative project on the interests of children aged from birth-to-five years old in Auckland, New Zealand. Second, I extend funds of identity theory through arguing that agency and imagination ought to be explicit concepts in this theory given that it foregrounds the capacity for humans to act on and imagine their worlds. Interest, agency, imagination and identity are concepts that can promote the dynamic view of development Vygotsky championed, and help to explain the way ongoing sociocultural mediation determines developmental possibilities and learning trajectories.