Sustaining Students’ Cultures and Identities. A Qualitative Study Based on the Funds of Knowledge and Identity Approaches

Round  1

Reviewer 1 Report

It would be advisable for the authors to specify the research:

Participants and background: it is not explained how the selection of teachers was made. Neither is it clearly indicated why schools were selected for research and those contexts in particular. No data are given either on the selection process of the university teachers and why they were chosen. Nothing is clarified about the training and preparation or suitability for the study.

The authors point out that ''an abbreviated version of the original model of the semi-structured interview of the Knowledge Funds Project was used'', but they do not explain the adaptation process of the interview and whether it has been contrasted with experts who guarantee this adaptation/reduction.

Related to “Artist’s book”,  Is it a new approach within the methodology or is it supported scientifically by other studies?

Authors do not explain why they use a different number of steps in each context.They should clarify this.

The procedure's explanation, although extensive, would be more clarifying if it was presented as structured phases, successive events and changes in such planning. Narrative proceeds as an improvisation. Therefore, it would be better if it was explained, from the beginning, exactly what the planning has been and what is included in each phase.

Authors in the line 408 say: “Within the available literature, there is a design of an educational activity based on the convergence of funds of knowledge and identity, on two levels of analysis—families and learner [9]. However, this activity has not been implemented, only designed…” But they do not specify or clarify why this programmed activity has not been carried out. It should be noted, as this affects the change from the original planning, it is important.

In the section, authors talk about transculturality, cultural pedagogy, innovative practices, recovering practices, recovering significant models, but I wonder what their practice contributes, their programming of activities to contribute to it? I think authors should have written something about it.

Author Response

First of all, the authors would like to thank the reviewer for valuable, constructive comments and feedback. 

Here, we try to explain point-by-point the details of the revisions made and our responses to the reviewer comments. 

- It is described how the selection of teachers was made, why schools were selected and so on (see from line 168 to 211 "participants and context of the intervention-research").

- Related to “Artist’s book” it is clarified that is a new methodological resource within the methodological approach used.

- In Procedure section (from line 238 to 281) is explained why different steps were developed in each specific context. In general, it is developed the procedure's explanation. 

- Regarding the reviewer comment:

Authors in the line 408 say: “Within the available literature, there is a design of an educational activity based on the convergence of funds of knowledge and identity, on two levels of analysis—families and learner [9]. However, this activity has not been implemented, only designed…”

Now is specified and clarified why this programmed activity was not been carried out. See line 448-452: "The reason for this is that it was the final project of a Master's degree..."

- Finally, it is described the main contribution of the paper regarding transculturality, sustaining cultural pedagogy, innovative practices, recovering practices and so on (see Lines 400-408): "In this sense, we believe the main contribution of the project described..."

Reviewer 2 Report

In my opinion this is a very well written article and I do not recommend any changes in the actual substance of the article.

I do, however, draw attention to the potential need to make minor changes to the English.

Line 155    the 'a' is redundant

Line171/172  I recommend that instead of  'It is important..'  (where present tense is used), it reads 'Of importance was..'

Line 174 Change 'is' to 'was'

Line 179 Delete 'the' 

Line 185 Change 'is' to 'was'

Line 197  Delete the first 'the'

Line 199, 200, 202, 204 206   use past tense of the verb

Line 212,215 I suggest change 'was' to 'is'

Line 258 Change 'their selves' to 'themselves'

Line 263 Delete 'have' 

Line 264, 265  Instead of First; Second, I recommend (i) and (ii) as used earlier (see 101-113) 

Line 269 I suggest putting ',' after group

Line 280 I suggest 'natural science' or  just 'science'

Line 284  I suggest 'in natural science' rather than 'of natural sciences'

Line 289  Change 'can' to 'could'

Line 313  suggest ',' after backgrounds

Line 314  Change 'occur' to 'occurred'

Line 322 Change 'emerge' to 'emerged'

Line 326 Change 'is' to 'was'

Line 335 and 337 Change verbs to past tense

Line 353 I recommend a ',' after superiority

Line 399 I suggest 'in the plural'

Line 405  I suggest 'may' or 'is likely to ' rather than 'would'

Author Response

We would like to thank you for your comments and editing suggestions. All the minor changes have been taken into account. Very useful. We really appreciate your help and assistance. 

Reviewer 3 Report

This seems a very interesting and informatively valuable article,which should be taken into account by Educational Authorities in countries having cultural-identity problems. 

Introduction is well-written, however, I would suggest adding some paragraphs on transmission of tradition both within a family, but also in school, and broaden the context by adding some information on movement literacy (traditional plays and sports) cultivated in one's own cultural zone and carried into new environment when immigrating - for more on this look in works like:

1.Groll M., Bronikowska M., Cultural aspects of traditional sports and games. International Journal of Physical Education, 2015(3): 25-36. 

2.Bronikowska M."Tuning up" Physical Education for Multi-cultural Needs of Modern Schools. :In: Contemporary Issues in Physical Education: International Perspectives. Ed. Hardman Ken, Green Ken Maidenhead-United Kingdom: Meyer & Meyer Sport, 2011 , 140-174 ; 

In Methods section - it would be worth stating why were the two schools selected - Are the proportions and scope of origins of pupils typical for schools in Spain or are the school different in the context of cultural diversity? 

Also the participants of the study should be described a little more in detail - age, years of experience etc. so the readers could get some idea whether these were quite young persons - perhaps more open for any cultural changes or relatively old, less interested and motivated towards any new social or cultural trends. This section needs revision as it is not clear who were the participants. Also the instruments used are not sufficiently desribed? Have they been validated? Maybe at least the tools were discussed and assessed for the accuracy by the internal group of experts? 

Results are not precisely described in quantitative terms - at least using most of, or majority would help understand the findings. 

In Discussion I suggest adding something about the actual pedagogical framork used in Spanish education system (as for a background for changes that the authors suggest to the system in terms of sustainable pedagogy). Also, although in the questions asked to the students, there were some concerning plays and games there is nothing mentioned in the discussion. From our own research experience it seems that simple movement plays and activities built strong cultural identity from the early childhood years, and children need some sense of understanding how this influeces their life to maintain being engage and active (look for: Is sense of coherence needed to keep youth physically activy, Medicino dello sport, 2014, 63(4):465-483). 

Also in Discussion in my opinion the authors should handle the issue of migration and globalization of culture, in more general trends and related that to the problem of school assimilation and school problems of migrant children, taken away from the roots of their culture and implemented in entirerly new culture, new codes of behaviours and expectations, values and norms. Art, music and sport maybe the areas for softening the submerging of such immigrant children in new environment. The authors should expand a little bit more on that as well.

References - authors should look for broader context for sustaiable pedagogy.

Author Response

We would like to thank the reviewer for valuable and constructive comments and suggestions. We addressed each of them in the revised manuscript. New and/or modified sections in the revised version of the manuscript are highlighted in red. Here we provide a detailed point-by-point reply.

- A paragraph on traditional sports and games, as social, cultural and identity aspects that are often unknown, or simply disregarded, by school culture and practice, is now added. See lines 384-392. The reference Groll & Bronikowska (2015) is included in that regard. 

- In the materials and methods section is described the selection criteria used to choose the participating centers (see lines 169-172, table 2). Moreover, it is described the school contexts in terms of cultural diversity in Spain (from line 207 to 211): "It should be noted here that both educational contexts are characterized by their social and cultural diversity (at least 30% of students being of foreign origin). According to official data, the percentage of students of foreign origin in schools across Spain was, for the 2018-2019 academic year, 8.8 %, although the autonomous community with the highest percentage of students of foreign origin was Catalonia, with 13.2% [3]." 

- It is described a little more in detail the participants of the study (lines 177-206).

- The instruments used are now described in more detail. In particular the process of adapting the funds of knowledge interview (lines 213-235).

- Results are not precisely described in quantitative terms because of the methodological approach used was qualitative, informed actually by the Participatory Action Research. It is now clarified the research question and the main purpose of the paper to stress the qualitative nature of the research described (Line 137-142): The main research question of this study was: how can school practice sustain students’ cultures using the funds of knowledge and funds of identity approaches? We describe two empirical examples from studies conducted in two different educational settings in Catalonia, Spain. One of them focuses on the funds of knowledge of the students’ families, the other, on the funds of identity of the students themselves. The general aim is to empirically illustrate methodologies that put culturally sustaining pedagogies into practice. 

- in the Discussion section, some paragraphs were added concerning plays and games, and the problem of school assimilation and school problems of migrant children from a critical standpoint. 

Round  2

Reviewer 1 Report

I agree with the modifications made by the authors.

Reviewer 3 Report

I think with this extended revision it is much better text now and more informative with better scientific overall soundness.