Swidler “tool-kit” metaphor is a resource for understanding culture and its influence. Concepts and propositions related to tools, took kits, strategies of action, social frameworks for action, the continuum of tool awareness, and settled/unsettled social circumstances are summarized. The approach is compared to the culture as a values framework. Farkas' application of this cultural resources model to at-risk, ethnically diverse students and their families is summarized.
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