In Luis Moll’s research, he discovered that even in areas where there are presumed “cultural deficits,” when students are deemed unintelligent or unteachable because they are from a different culture, there is often times what is called “culture capital.” Culture capital is basically a surplus of vast wealth of knowledge in a given community of these underclass students.
Moll did his research in Tuscon, Arizona with Mexican-American students. He looked in the community for evidence of specific areas in which the community possessed a vast amount of knowledge. Once he discovered what the community truly excelled at, he encouraged teachers to include those subjects into the curriculum. The result was obvious to the teachers. Class participation and interest improved when the teachers included things that the students were interested in, and their culture emphasized.
Even though this study was done in Arizona, the actions taken by Moll and the teachers in Tuscon could be applied anywhere else. Foxfire did similar work in Alabama. As long as the students are interested in the curriculum I think that the students would be much more likely to excel.
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