Reading Alliances Project: the development of readers and writers rooted in Funds of Knowledge / Proyecto Alianzas de Lectura: la formación de lectores y escritores enraizada en los fondos de conocimiento

Abstract

This study was conducted with the purpose of documenting the Puerto Rico–Guatemala Reading Alliances Project (PAL), which aims to promote reading and the development of readers and writers at a Maya Kaqchikel rural school in Guatemala. The foundation of this qualitative study is Vygotsky’s historical-cultural theory (in particular the concept of zone of proximal development) and the Funds of Knowledge perspective coined by Luis Moll and his collaborators. Ethnographic and action-research methodology was used, with the participation of students and their families. Anchored in the zone of proximal development, the PAL developed pedagogical practices focused on constructing meanings based on linguistic and cultural knowledge, the Funds of Knowledge of the children, their families and their community. This article presents how this community’s knowledge was used for academic purposes for curricular design, reading development and especially text production. The researchers, professors at the University of Puerto Rico, are former students of Luis Moll.