ABSTRACT
In BC: RLL, while the teachers actively mediated between homes and school (González et al., 2005) the LA co-ordinators were also mediators. They mediated the learning between teachers, children, families, communities and the linked university-based researchers. This was an innovative aspect of this project, and one of its strengths; it added an additional ‘layer’ and new insights to the original funds of knowledge project (González et al., 2005). In the original project, there was a core team of anthropological researchers and the teachers. In BC:RLL the organisation of the project facilitated fi ve sub groups of LA co-ordinators and teachers, some of whom worked alongside partners from other agencies, such as the School’s Library Service or specialists from the Minority Communities and Ethnic Achievement Service (MCAS), to develop the teachers’ expectations and knowledge of children and their families’ funds of knowledge. The work was fundamentally different from previous projects in which the LA co-ordinators had been involved which created tensions. They sought to support the teachers in considering their tacit assumptions and perceptions about children and their families and this too represented a challenge. The work caused several of the LA co-ordinators to shift their professional positions with regard to working with teachers, for example:
This has been different because we’ve not had an agenda coming from a national perspective; it’s more open-ended and developmental . . . I had to do a lot more thinking on my feet, assessing things for the project. I’ve been working alongside the teachers more. (Final interview)
In this chapter the challenges which the LA co-ordinators experienced are considered through their reports and refl ective interviews, viewed through a sociocultural theoretical lens. These reveal that while they experienced common dilemmas, there was signifi cant learning involved for the LA co-ordinators, both personally and
professionally, in relation to the children’s practices, their own perceptions of families and their understanding of professional development. This overview is followed by a case study, which offers a more detailed and coherent sense of the professional learning and mediation in one of the LA teams.
