Aprovechando Funds of Knowledge with the Engaged Arts and Humanities student scholars: creating equity-oriented zones of collaboration / Aprovechando los fondos de conocimiento con investigadoras comunitarias en formación en artes y humanidades: creando zonas igualitarias de colaboración

Abstract

This article shares how the Engaged Arts and Humanities scholars (EAH) program and participants work to develop equity-oriented zones of collaboration that allow for Funds of Knowledge (FK) to circulate and support activity inclusive of participants’ expertise, lived experience, cares and interests. First, we discuss how the EAH program is iteratively designed to aprovechar (to take advantage of or to make use of) participants’ FK for shared learning, action and reflection on community-engaged scholarship projects, and pay homage to the influence Luis Moll and Norma González had on author Schwartz as their student. Subsequently, we share how four EAH scholars worked to distribute power and aprovechar FK in their partnerships with narratives developed through reflective questions attending to power relations in their projects. The focus of the narratives is not on specific FK but rather on how equity-oriented zones of collaboration were developed to position the FK of the participants — from the EAH scholars to the teachers and students they worked with in K-12 settings — as valuable resources for meaning-making.