Drawing on funds of knowledge (c.f. Gonzàles/Moll 2002) research, we state that education in general and subject learning in particular should relate to students daily life experiences for many reasons (e.g. to cope with uncertainty caused by being unfamiliar with academic content in class and to foster meaningful learning by providing culturally-relevant pedagogy). This paper aims to discuss how drawing on students’ funds of knowledge might impact their biographical experiences within school. Using the term biography, we refer to the concept of narrative identy, that is defined as “the unity of a person’s life as it is experienced and articulated in stories that express this experience” (Widdershoven 1993, p. 7). Understanding subject learning as a sociocultural process (c.f. Vygotsky 1978) and questioning the gap between in-school and out-of-school knowledge, this paper will examine the theory of transformative Bildung (c.f. Koller 2017) for its suitability for educational settings that draw on students’ funds of knowledge. Referring to Koller (2017, p. 34) the experience of “crisis” is a necessity for processes of Bildung. Crisis is defined as a situation, in which the established routines or “figures of the world- and self-relation” are not sufficient anymore what might lead to a transformation of the world-self-relation. Funds of knowledge is “historically accumulated and culturally developed bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household or individual functioning and well-being” (Moll, Amanti, Neff & Gonzalez, 1992, p. 134). By drawing on students’ funds of knowledge, it is no longer the unfamiliarity with academic knowledge that causes that student’s uncertainty. As this uncertainty is resolved, uncertainty for other learners may increase as their differing worldviews and perceptions of academic knowledge are challenged. These new perspectives may trigger crisis (in both, students and teachers) that could develop into biographically significant experiences which German educators refer to as Bildung.

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