This paper presents the process of recognition and development of funds of knowledge from immigrant families that takes place through their engagement in dialogic literacy gatherings and the potential use for informing and improving literacy learning at elementary and secondary schools. Dialogic literary gatherings consist on the reading and discussing classical literature, contributing to improve literacy skills, critical reading, communication and mutual understanding (Soler, 2015). The study focuses on exploring the participation of a group of Moroccan women in a Dialogic literary gathering in a school placed in a high poverty area in Tarragona, Spain. The group has evolved during the last 5 years engaging a total of 15 women. Data collection include observations and interviews to a volunteer facilitator of the group, which allowed to identify capabilities, knowledge and skills in regards to a set of categories including “cultural knowledge”. Then, interviews with both participants and teachers were focused on the use of such funds of knowledge on the households and in classroom. Both data collection and analysis used a communicative methodological approach (Gómez, Siles & Tejedor, 2012). Our results show that Dialogic Literary Gatherings allow the emergence – and development - of diverse and rich cultural knowledge, related to history, geography, religion, narratives and other relevant topics for the women. The activity allows teachers or volunteers to identify, recognise and value these funds of knowledge in a highly cooperative space. Results also suggest some ways in which these funds of knowledge are used or may be used for literacy learning purposes. The identified funds of knowledge challenge the deficit-lens from which Moroccan mothers are considered in Spanish schools and can inform richer practices of literacy learning. At the same time, the paper contributes with new evidences on the potential uses of Dialogic Literary Gatherings.

Gómez, A., Siles, G., & Tejedor, M. (2012). Contributing to social transformation through Communicative Research Methodology. Qualitative Research in Education. doi: 10.4471/qre.2012.02 Soler, M. (2015). Biographies of “Invisible” People Who Transform Their Lives and Enhance Social Transformations Through Dialogic Gatherings. Qualitative Inquiry, 21(10), 839–842. doi: 10.1177/1077800415614032