Deepening Vygotsky’s legacy: Funds of Knowledge and reading research involving bilinguals with and without disabilities / Profundizando en el legado de Vygotski: Fondos de Conocimiento e investigación sobre la lectura en personas bilingües con y sin discapacidades

Abstract

This critical literature review examined how Luis Moll’s scholarship on Funds of Knowledge (FK) built upon, but also expanded, Vygotskian theoretical concepts. The study also explored how Moll’s novel contributions and the Vygotskian connections he employed inform studies about reading development with bilingual children with disabilities or experiencing reading difficulties. Drawing on a larger meta-synthesis, this study analyzed peer-reviewed articles that addressed language and culture in relation to reading development and that cited Luis Moll. The review explored how Moll’s novel contributions using Vygotsky’s theory had been appropriated, adapted or overlooked in these studies. The findings revealed that while some studies captured and built upon Moll’s novel contributions to Vygotskyan concepts, others failed to engage more robustly with his transformative vision regarding culture/mediated learning, zone of proximal development (ZPD) and everyday and scientific concepts. We argue that there is a need to address culture more consistently, engage with Moll’s expansive interpretations of Vygotsky’s concepts and promote the kinds of collaboration between researchers, teachers and the family and communities that Moll promoted throughout his professional career.