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Funds of Identity
Funds of Identity: Connecting Meaningful Learning Experiences in and out of

School describes a particular and very recent application of the “funds of
knowledge approach.” The concept stems from a Vygotskian and eco-
logical perspective of learning and the human mind and attempts to meet
the challenges currently facing education in a mobile-centric society.
Drawing on research conducted mostly in Catalonia (Spain), Moisès
Esteban-Guitart outlines a distinct vision of education enhanced by
students’ identities, which leads to a discussion of the sociocultural fac-
tors that shape the processes of learning.
Moisès Esteban-Guitart is a professor of the Department of Psychology

at the University of Girona and Counsellor at the Open University of
Catalonia. He is Editor of the journal Papeles de Trabajo sobre Cultura,
Educación y Desarrollo Humano (Working Papers on Culture, Education
and Human Development). Professor Esteban-Guitart’s research activ-
ity spans the fields of cultural psychology and educational research, and
he has published widely on issues of identity, cultural diversity, and
education.
LEARNING IN DOING: SOCIAL, COGNITIVE,
AND COMPUTATIONAL PERSPECTIVES
SERIES EDITOR EMERITUS

John Seely Brown, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
GENERAL EDITORS
Roy Pea, Professor of Education and the Learning Sciences and Director,
Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning, Stanford University
Christian Heath, The Management Centre, King’s College, London
Lucy A. Suchman, Centre for Science Studies and Department of Sociology,
Lancaster University, UK
Books in the Series

The Construction Zone: Working for Cognitive Change in School
Denis Newman, Peg Griffin, and Michael Cole
Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation

Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger
Street Mathematics and School Mathematics

Terezinha Nunes, David William Carraher, and Analucia Dias
Schliemann
Understanding Practice: Perspectives on Activity and Context

Seth Chaiklin and Jean Lave, Editors
Distributed Cognitions: Psychological and Educational Considerations

Gavriel Salomon, Editor
The Computer as Medium

Peter Bøgh Anderson, Berit Holmqvist, and Jens F. Jensen, Editors
Sociocultural Studies of Mind

James V. Wertsch, Pablo del Rio, and Amelia Alvarez, Editors
Sociocultural Psychology: Theory and Practice of Doing and Knowing

Laura Martin, Katherine Nelson, and Ethel Tobach, Editors
Mind and Social Practice: Selected Writings of Sylvia Scribner

Ethel Tobach et al., Editors
(continued after index)
Funds of Identity
Connecting Meaningful Learning
Experiences in and out of School
MOISÈS ESTEBAN-G UITART

University of Girona
One Liberty Plaza, New York, NY 10006, USA
Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge.

It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of
education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence.
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107147119
© Moisès Esteban-Guitart 2016
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2016
Printed in the United States of America
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Esteban-Guitart, Moisès, author.
Funds of identity : connecting meaningful learning experiences
in and out of school / Moisès Esteban-Guitart.
New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2016. |
Series: Learning in doing: social, cognitive and computational
perspectives | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016018474| ISBN 9781107147119 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781316601129 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Learning, Psychology of. |
Learning – Social aspects. | Holistic education.
Classification: LCC LB1060.E87 2016 | DDC 370.15/23–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016018474
ISBN 978-1-107-14711-9 Hardback
ISBN 978-1-316-60112-9 Paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of
URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication
and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
Contents
List of Figures page ix

List of Tables xi
Acknowledgments xiii
My Own Funds of Identity: A Brief Introduction 1

1 Learning in a Mobile-Centric Society 7
Digital Media – an Extension of Man: Some Remarks
and a Fresh Look at McLuhan’s and Vygotsky’s Legacies 10
From a TV-Centric Society to a Mobile-Centric Society 14
Some Traits of the Mobile-Centric Society and the New
Ecology of Learning 17
Some Principles of Learning for the Twenty-first Century 26
2 From Funds of Knowledge to Funds of Identity 34
The Funds of Knowledge of the Funds of Knowledge Approach 35
Identity from a Vygotskian Point of View 40
The Terms “Funds of Identity” and “Meaningful Learning
Experiences” 46
3 How to Detect Funds of Identity? Some Methodological
Insights 53
Teachers as Ethnographers 55
Toward a Multimethodological Approach for Detecting Funds
of Identity 60
Some Qualitative Strategies and Techniques to Uncover
Students’ Funds of Identity and Their Meaningful
Learning Experiences 63
vii
viii Contents
4 How to Use Students’ Funds of Identity

Pedagogically: Some Practical Experiences 80
Putting the Study Groups to Work: The Girona Project 82
Interweaving Cultures: Bilingual Fairy Tales from around
the World 89
Open Centers for Children and Adolescents at Risk
of Social Exclusion 94
Identities at the Heart of Education: Some Final Remarks 103
References 111
Index 123
Figures
3.1 Example of an identity drawing page 64

3.2 Examples of identity drawings by young indigenous
people from Chiapas 65
3.3 Examples of identity drawings by young students
(Western-urban group) 66
3.4 Examples of identity drawings by people of different ages:
a five-year-old girl (left) and a sixty-nine-year-old
woman (right) 67
3.5 Example of a “significant circle.” The family is at the center.
Clockwise from the top are work, partner, children, religion,
siblings, and parents 70
3.6 Example of a “geomap” 71
3.7 Using photographs to study educational routines and
situations 72
3.8 The use of photographs to document significant learning
experiences 74
3.9 Use of the personal diary to study the narrative
construction of identity among immigrants 76
4.1 An example of an identity drawing of the father of a family
from Tangier (Morocco) that shows him praying 87
4.2 Identity drawing (left) and significant circle (right) of a
seven-year-old girl. In the upper left section of both the
drawing and the significant circle we have circled her
references to the farm where she writes “visiting the farm
where Father works” 88
4.3 An example of a learning spiral by Linda, originally
from Ghana 97
ix
x Figures
4.4 Example of a comic strip by a Catalan participant 99

4.5 Collective poster “I study for. . .” 100
4.6 Collective poster that records examples of the activities
carried out 100
Tables
1.1 Some traits of the mobile-centric society page 18

1.2 The coordinates of the new learning ecology compared
to the modern-traditional learning ecology 24
1.3 Six guiding principles of learning for the
twenty-first century 28
2.1 Types of funds of identity according to their origin
and content 51
3.1 Analysis of subject content and significant learning
experiences 77
4.1 Bridging funds of knowledge and funds of identity 81
xi
newgenprepdf
Acknowledgments
I am indebted to several institutions whose support made the work

described in this book possible. These include the Institute of Educational
Research and the Department of Psychology of the University of Girona
(Spain), the Open University of Catalonia (Spain), the University of
Barcelona (Spain), the Intercultural University of Chiapas (Mexico), the
University of Leeds (England), the Institute for Cultural Research and
Education (California, USA) and, especially, the Department of Teaching,
Learning and Sociocultural Studies, College of Education, University of
Arizona (Arizona, USA). As shown throughout the book, I have benefited
immensely from my discussions with many of the fine people and academ-
ics from these institutions. I am also particular grateful to the following
bodies that funded some of the empirical work outlined in the text: the
Social Council of the University of Girona (grants 2011, 2015), La Caixa
Foundation (RecerCaixa program, call 2013), and the Spanish Ministry of
Science and Innovation (EDU2009-12875 and EDU2009-08891). Finally,
I would like to express my utmost gratitude to Roy Pea and the reviewers
and staff of Cambridge University Press for the invaluable editorial assis-
tance and feedback they provided. Without them, this book could not have
been completed.
xiii
My Own Funds of Identity: A Brief Introduction
Cultural psychology, or the sociocultural perspective in psychology

in general, and Vygotsky’s approach in particular, was something I began
to take seriously following my first trip to Chiapas, Mexico. It was 2006,
the same year I had been at the Leeds Social Science Institute, England, to
familiarize myself with the multimethod autobiographical approach pio-
neered by Anna Bagnoli, who is now at the University of Cambridge. Her
approach, as discussed in Chapter 3, would prove highly useful in detecting
what I would eventually call the funds of identity that all learners bring with
them to their place of learning.
It was shortly after I had graduated in psychology (2004) and philoso-
phy (2006) and pursuing a doctorate in educational psychology as part of
the Interuniversity Doctoral Program, coordinated by César Coll, of the
University of Barcelona in Spain.
Of my training in psychology, I remember the classes given by Ignasi
Vila, with whom I subsequently worked, and still do, and with whom I did
my thesis, along with Josep Maria Nadal, former rector of the University
of Girona. I remember also the students’ association we created “Associació
per a la Recerca i la Promoció de la Psicologia / Association to Research and
Promote Psychology” (ARPP) in 2000 that enabled us to discover and meet
professors from other Spanish universities who would eventually become
friends: among others, Pablo del Río, Amelia Álvarez, José Luis Linaza, Juan
Daniel Ramírez, Alberto Rosa, or the late Dr. Miquel Siguán, who passed
away in 2010 and who was one of the foremost promoters of Vygotsky, and
of psychology in general, in this country, along with José Luis Pinillos, with
whom I also became acquainted through the students’ association.
However, I must confess that I have even better memories of my studies
in philosophy, because it was my great fortune to be educated in what is
probably one of the best philosophy departments in the country. Professors
1
2 My Own Funds of Identity: A Brief Introduction
Terricabras, del Pozo, Alcoberro, Pradas, Zimmer, Pineda, among others,

familiarized us with the analytical philosophy of Wittgenstein, American
pragmatism, and the European philosophical tradition. And it was from
this point on that I managed to establish relationships between American
pragmatism, European phenomenology, Wittgenstein, and Vygotsky.
But returning to the field of my training in psychology, it was Professor
Ignasi Vila, a disciple of Dr. Siguán, who probably had the greatest impact
on my training (along with Luis Moll, Carl Ratner, and César Coll). He
was among the first –in Europe as a whole and in Spain in particular –
to introduce two authors who have marked my intellectual progress since
then: Lev Vygotsky and Urie Bronfenbrenner. These are the authors
whose work underlies the notions of funds of identity, as we shall see in
Chapter 2. Another important figure is Jerome Bruner, whom I have been
fortunate enough to meet and converse with on different occasions, thanks
to the generous friendship of José Luis Linaza. However, as I was saying,
I began to look in earnest at the Vygotskian approach to cultural psychol-
ogy in 2006.
Back then I was collecting data on the psychological effects of par-
ticipation in a university environment that implemented an intercultural
education model (the Universidad Intercultural de Chiapas) among young
indigenous and mestizo students, many from San Cristóbal de las Casas
and nearby (Esteban-Guitart & Rivas, 2008; Esteban-Guitart, Bastiani, &
Vila, 2009). I had immersed myself in a subject that would stay with me
from then on and that has become a recurrent theme in the social sci-
ences: the psychosocial mechanisms involved in the construction of human
identity (Esteban-Guitart, 2009). It is a problem discussed by Plato but that
is especially developed in Cartesian dualism; in the disputes about subjec-
tivity; and, more recently, in deliberations regarding the social, cultural,
and human consequences of globalization. However, as I sought answers
regarding the effects that an explicitly intercultural higher education
model may have on the indigenous and mestizo people of Chiapas in terms
of their empathy, tolerance for diversity, self-esteem, and ethnic identity,
I began to find questions about how identity is constructed, what it con-
sists of, and why this subject is relevant in contemporary settings. One of
my former philosophy professors said that the best answer is often a good
question. I think he was right.
What I had expected to find, in the classrooms of Chiapas, were atten-
tion deficit hyperactivity disorders, children with bad moods and tantrums
at two years of age, or theory of mind development at around four years of
age, according to the classic false belief tasks that I was applying (and that
I had learned about during my participation –another good memory –in a

group led by Elisabet Serrat, also of the University of Girona, with whom
I now share the direction of the psychology department, following the
retirement of the former director, Ignasi Vila). However, what I actually
found was a complex political, linguistic, and culturally diverse reality, in
which the Zapatista autonomous schools confronted the government, and
in which boys and girls as young as four or five collaborated in farm work
and house work, as well as caring for younger siblings. I also noted the arbi-
trariness and scant ecological relevance of some of the basic concepts of my
study: the idea of mestizo and indigenous, for example. In fact, many partici-
pants declared they had never self-identified as indigenous or mestizo until
the appearance of questionnaires, like the ones I was using, or those used
by the Intercultural University of Chiapas. Applying Heisenberg’s uncer-
tainty principle, we could say that the aims of my study and my interven-
tion derived from, and had an effect on, the construction, positioning, or
acts of identification of the participants. This was an important lesson –
which will be developed throughout this book –on the social, cultural, and
historically contingent, situated, and distributed nature of human identities
or, in bronfenbrennerian terms, the ecological nature of human experience.
It could be said that I had experienced my first empirical evidence of
the Vygotskian premise according to which, as Ratner would say (2006,
p. 16): “We are the product of the products we produce.” We are liter-
ally the product of our participation in educational practices, whether for-
mal or informal, through which we acquired and learned to use a huge
range of resources and psychological and cultural tools thanks to which
we can organize, regulate, and direct our own behavior and that of others.
In fact, we literally construct ourselves as individuals with these resources
and tools.
Influenced by the work of Michael Tomasello on “shared intentional-
ity” (Lazarus & Esteban-Guitart, 2013), I suggested the term intentional
conditioning to describe this capacity (Esteban-Guitart, 2013). The theory
is widely known and is based on the premise that our behavior stops being
biologically or environmentally conditioned when we intentionally (either
explicitly or implicitly) incorporate auxiliary cultural media that, from “the
outside” (culture) act upon “the inside” (the thoughts and behaviors of peo-
ple). An alarm clock, for example, allows us to determine our behavior with
regard to getting up in the morning from the outside, and in using such a
device, we are no longer subject to conditioning by other forces, such as the
need to rest or our biological “clock.” Similarly, Facebook and WhatsApp
allow us to overcome physical barriers and communicate with anyone at
any time. In a deeper sense, devices and media such as these create particu-
lar cultural and psychological architectures, as I will argue later.
After fully immersing myself in the Vygotskian approach to cultural
psychology, thanks mainly to the writings of Vygotsky himself and his col-
league Luria, as well as those of renowned commentators such as Michael
Cole, Jaan Valsiner, Barbara Rogoff, and James Wertsch, another turning
point in the direction of my interests arrived in 2010.
This was when I began to work with Carl Ratner at the Institute
for Cultural Research and Education in Trinidad, California, and with
Luis Moll and all the people of the “family” that comprised the depart-
ment of Teaching, Learning & Sociocultural Studies at the University of
Arizona: Norma González; Iliana Reyes; Marta Civil; Cecilia Ríos; Jesús
Acosta; José Soto; Aura González; Sandra Soto; Ana Iddings; Patricia
Azuara; Janelle Johnson; Ellen Bounds; Lisa Schwartz; and Richard Ruiz,
who sadly passed away recently. I remember very well the sense of humor
and compromise for social justice of Richard Ruiz. Special human abilities
characterize the members of this incredible and unique department. Many
of them are now at other universities, scattered throughout the world, but
all of them are remembered with much admiration, affection, and love.
I will never forget nor be sufficiently grateful for the great fortune this
year represents, and the impact it had on all levels of my life and training.
It was here that I comprehended Ratner’s macro cultural psychology and
the funds of knowledge program that had emerged in Arizona a few decades
earlier. And it was from that moment on that I became more deeply inter-
ested in the educational applications of Vygotskian theory in general and,
more specifically, in developing the topic I had been studying: a theory
of identity that would be educationally useful and relevant (Acosta-Iriqui
& Esteban-Guitart, 2010; Esteban-Guitart, 2011a, 2013, 2014a; Esteban-
Guitart & Moll, 2014a, 2014b; Esteban-Guitart & Ratner, 2010, 2011;
Reyes & Esteban-Guitart, 2013).
Aristotle said that Being can be expressed, indeed it is expressed, in many
ways (“Being is said in many ways”). And recently Bruner (2012) warns
that, in its deepest sense, psychology seeks to understand and investigate
the human condition but, given the multifaceted nature of this condition,
it can be conceptualized in many different ways. As with any psychologi-
cal construct, the same is true for the concept of identity. It is not my
purpose here to list all the possible ways of capturing such a complex
phenomenon as identity, but I do intend to describe and illustrate one of
them. For now, however, my intention in this introduction is to provide an
explanation of the influences and interests that underlie the fundamental
thesis of this book (which we have explored elsewhere: Esteban-Guitart,

2012a, 2012b, 2014b; Esteban-Guitart & Moll, 2014a, 2014b; Esteban-
Guitart & Vila, 2013a Esteban-Guitart & Saubich, 2013; Esteban-Guitart,
Subero, & Brito, 2015; González- Patiño & Esteban- Guitart, 2015;
Jovés, Siqués, & Esteban-Guitart, 2015; Saubich & Esteban-Guitart, 2011;
Subero, Vila, & Esteban-Guitart, 2015).
This thesis proposes using funds of identity as a complementary notion
to funds of knowledge with the aim of using this concept for educational pur-
poses to structure and link the learning experiences, practices, and lifestyles
of learners both in and out of school. The strongest influence is the socio-
cultural orientation behind the concept. The principal interest is to use this
concept for educational purposes, that is, to optimize and coordinate the
relationships –to establish continuities –between learners and the contexts
of their lives: the school, the family, and the social environment. This is an
aspect that, as will be seen, is based on the notion of the mesosystem that
Bronfenbrenner defined in the 1970s.
But before we can fully grasp such a purpose and thesis, we need to situ-
ate the problem, or the notion, as well as illustrate its educational applica-
tions. With this in mind, this book is divided into five chapters.
In the first chapter, the aim is to justify and contextualize the contem-
porary debate regarding the crisis of traditional systems of formal educa-
tion in what is defined as a liquid, global, or informational society. This is a
subject that forms part of the current projects in which I am involved,
Bridging Learning Experiences (http://bridginglearning.psyed.edu.es/en/),
led by César Coll and Ignasi Vila. These projects have enabled me to arrive
at a diagnosis of the current situation, the Nueva Ecología del Aprendizaje
[The New Ecology of Learning], and with Javier González-Patiño, of the
Autonomous University of Madrid, we have come to the conclusion that
we have outgrown the TV-centric society and the PC-centric society and
that we are now more probably a mobile-centric society characterized by
the massive and widespread penetration of digital devices in the artifacts of
everyday life, the most widely used of which is currently the smartphone
(González-Patiño & Esteban-Guitart, 2014). Defining this notion, and
situating learning and teaching within contemporary settings, is the focus
of the first chapter. Once again: “We are the product of the products we
produce.”
In the second chapter, I describe the origin, objectives, and the basis of
the Funds of Knowledge project that emerged in Tucson, Arizona, in the
1980s. This will allow me to contextualize the core notion of this book,
which is the concept of funds of identity.
In the third chapter, using an extended version of the multimethod

autobiographical approach, I describe how to identify and detect the funds
of identity of learners so that subsequently, in Chapter 4, we can present a
number of educational experiences involving funds of identity carried out
in Catalonia.
This region, on the border between Spain and France, is presently an
autonomous community of Spain that, in recent decades, has been charac-
terized by the impact of migration mainly from Africa, Latin America, Asia,
and Europe. It is also characterized, like many other parts of the planet,
by the harsh, profound, and persistent political and economic crisis of the
early twenty-first century.
Finally, by way of conclusion, I attempt to justify the importance of the
learners’ identities in current educational scenarios. This will oblige us to
return to the main thesis of which I have thus far given only an outline: the
need to structure the learning paths and experiences that today’s learners
take on throughout the length and breadth and depth of their lives –life-
long, life-wide, and life-deep learning (Banks et al., 2007). To do so, I shall
return to the notion of funds of identity as an educational tool that can be
used to facilitate the processes of articulation between different formal and
informal learning contexts and, thereby, as a vehicle for promoting signifi-
cant learning experiences.
1 Learning in a Mobile-Centric Society
If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of

tomorrow.
John Dewey
School –like any other social institution –is a historical and cul-
tural artifact and that means it is subject to economic, cultural, and political
forces. Schools have always been under intense scrutiny and, perhaps too
often, formal education is said to be in crisis. The role of formal education
is, however, shifting. It can be argued that what is known as the ecological
turn in the learning sciences has led to a situation in which learning is now
considered as a participation in a network of both formal and informal set-
tings, some of which are mediated by digital media. Although the ecological
turn in educational psychology and human development can be traced back
to Bronfenbrenner (1974, 1977, 1979), it seems to me that an ecological
approach to our understanding of learning is needed today more than ever.
During the first decades of the twentieth century, John Dewey imag-
ined the Schools of To-Morrow (Dewey & Dewey, 1915). Dewey emphasized
that schools needed to adopt new instructional approaches and organize
their curricula based on future societal needs. In one of his most widely
quoted commentaries, Dewey predicted, “If we teach today’s students as
we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow” (Dewey, 1916, p. 167).
Writing just over a century ago, it would have been inconceivable for him
to envision the current world of globalization and digital media. Yet his
basic message remains highly relevant today. If schools do not reinvent
themselves to engage teachers and students and train learners for today’s
This chapter is partially based on prior ideas that appeared in González-Patiño and Esteban-
Guitart (2014) and Esteban-Guitart (2015a).
7
needs and for today’s challenges, the idea of school as an institution will
become nonsensical.
Nowadays, learners need to refresh their knowledge and skills con-
stantly because of both the caducity of information and the precarious
and changing job market. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics
(2012), the average worker will change jobs almost twelve times before
age forty-six, and nearly half of these job changes will take place between
the ages of eighteen and twenty-four. At the same time, digital media is
expanding learning activities because of its capacity to connect learners to a
wide range of informational resources anywhere and anytime. Thus, rather
than being limited to six hours a day for half the year, education is mov-
ing toward complete engagement and full-time learning; rather than being
limited to school or university spaces, education is moving toward informal
activities in countless different contexts and situations.
Indeed, according to the Learning in Informal and Formal Environments
(LIFE) Center in the United States, most of the learning that occurs from
infancy to adulthood takes place in informal environments. Most of the
time, such learning is intuited, unconscious, “picked up” as we go along. We
could say that today, more than ever, learning occurs across and throughout
life; it involves life-long learning (where learning extends from our child-
hood into old age), life-wide learning (the breadth of transactions, locations,
and experiences) and life-deep learning (embracing religious, social, moral,
or ethical values that guide what people believe, how they act, and how
they judge themselves and others) (Banks et al., 2007).
Preparing students for life-long and life-wide learning are important
educational goals in democratic pluralistic societies but schools must
not forget life-deep learning, or preparing students how to live together.
“Effective citizens in democratic multicultural societies have the knowl-
edge and skills needed to live in a complex and diverse world, to participate
in deliberation with other groups, and to take action to create a more just
and caring world” (Banks et al., 2007, p. 11).
Renowned sociologists such as Manuel Castells, Zygmunt Bauman,
Stephen Castles, or John Urry, among others, argue that in this complex
and diverse world, globalization and mobility are two sides of the same coin.
Mobility has become a necessity because it allows people to be in touch with
informational networks (Castells, 1996). Not being connected is today syn-
onymous with being excluded. This is the downside of a global knowledge
economy that is characterized by a social system and way of life –consumer
capitalism –in which production, distribution, and consumption of goods
depends on investment by private capital and profit-making in the free
Learning in a Mobile-Centric Society 9
markets (Ratner, 2011). The negative consequences include the creation of

surplus people (who have no place in the system); the feeling of a liquid and
unpredictable world over which people have no control; the increasingly
visible inequalities between the rich and the poor; the fragility of jobs and
relationships (Bauman, 2006); and the cult of the self that fosters a lifestyle of
competition, private ownership of property, unstable lives, and hedonistic
values (Esteban-Guitart, 2011b; Esteban-Guitart & Ratner, 2011).
Schools are not immune to these processes; quite the contrary, in fact.
What is happening in the world is mirrored in school settings where, in
recent decades, substantial changes have transformed school populations.
However, there is a growing mismatch between the cultures in children’s
homes and the cultures in their schools brought about by the presence of
different languages, identities, religions, and family traditions in contem-
porary societies. Consequently, at the same time, there are important dif-
ferences in learning outcomes.
In short, disproportionately high numbers of students who are under-
represented (because of low income, ethnic minority status, foreign origin,
and so on) perform consistently lower academically than typical middle-
class students. This is borne out by the Organisation for Economic Co-
operation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International
Student Assessment (PISA), which has illustrated the effects on learning
outcomes of socioeconomic disadvantages by comparing students with and
without an immigrant background. For instance, one of the conclusions
of a PISA (2012) analysis of math scores from around 510,000 students
across 34 OECD countries, was, “Across OECD countries, a more socio-
economically advantaged student scores 39 points higher in mathematics –
the equivalent of nearly one year of schooling –than a less-advantaged
student” (PISA, 2012, p. 12).
Indeed, disadvantaged students not only score lower in mathematics
and are more likely to skip classes or school days or arrive late for school,
but they also reported lower levels of engagement, drive, motivation, and
self-belief (PISA, 2012).
Radical thinking is required to deal successfully with this social and
cultural heterogeneity to maintain and guarantee equality, social cohesion,
and social justice. As my friend and colleague Juan Carlos Tedesco (2005)
puts it: learning to live together for a fairer world.
Before we look at a new way of understanding educational practice,
namely the funds of knowledge and funds of identity approaches, we need
to figure out the current coordinates of learning, which will help us to
understand why today’s schools remain under scrutiny. In this chapter, we
attempt to characterize the society in which we live so that we can contex-

tualize the learning and education that takes place within it.
Digital Media –an Extension of Man: Some Remarks

and a Fresh Look at McLuhan’s and Vygotsky’s Legacies
There is a certain amount of convergence in some of the ideas espoused by
Herbert Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) and Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky
(1896–1934), although it seems they never met.
Vygotsky’s ideas were introduced in the West, where they remained
virtually unknown until 1962, when Jerome Bruner brought Thought and
Language to the English-speaking world (Vygotsky, 1962). Since then and
thanks to the Luria relationship with Jerome Bruner and Michael Cole,
Vygotsky became a central component of the development of new para-
digms in developmental and educational psychology.
The idea behind McLuhan’s well-known phrase, “The medium is the
message” (McLuhan, 1964), is close to Vygotsky’s principle of significance –
his explanation of the specificity of human behavior (Vygotsky, 1997).
It seems to me that both authors stress the psychosociocultural impor-
tance and consequences of all types of media, be they radio, television, or
Internet. Or as Ratner said, “We are the product of the products we pro-
duce” (Ratner, 2006, p. 13). And nowadays, digital devices are the products
we produce and digital devices produce what we are. All media produce
strong psychosociocultural consequences because all media are made up
of particular psychological and social architectures (Esteban- Guitart,
2010). We actually build certain kinds of relationships, behavior, and ways
of learning that are specific and contingent to the media we employ. As
we have tried to show in other papers (Esteban-Guitart, 2015a; González-
Patiño & Esteban-Guitart, 2013), this idea is rooted, or at least can be
sustained, in ideas stemming from authors such as McLuhan and Vygotsky.
For both authors, any instrument or cultural artifact created during the
historical and cultural development of humanity is an extension of human
skills. The train, for example, is an extension of our legs and our ability to
move; television extends our sight and perceptions; literacy amplifies our
memory and thought; laws regulate our transactions; and Facebook and
similar networking tools extend language and communication. Biological
and psychological constraints meant that we could not fly, nor remem-
ber everything, nor perceive the details of the planets with the naked eye.
However, thanks to prostheses, artifacts, instruments, media, and so on, we
can now do all of these. We can perform these activities thanks to cultural
Digital Media – an Extension of Man 11
mediation –a core concept of Vygotsky’s work (Moll, 2014; Vygotsky, 1978;
Wertsch, 2007). That is to say, we use artifacts and symbol systems (“psy-
chological tools”), such as language, writing, art, mathematics, computers,
Internet, and so forth that are created culturally and inherited socially.
And we use these tools of the mind to engage in human practices and to
regulate our behavior. It seems to me that this idea is a stroke of genius
that overcomes the traditional separation between psychology (of the indi-
vidual) and the physical world that characterizes other approaches in psy-
chology such as in the work of Piaget. To Vygotsky, psychology is to be
found in things as well as in people. In that regard, the world we live in is
psychologized, full of material and symbolic resources that amplify, assist, and
regulate our behavior.
The importance of the artifact –tools, devices, or media –is not its
message but the medium itself; hence the relevance of McLuhan’s idea that
the medium is the message.
This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any
medium –that is, of any extension of ourselves –result from the new scale
that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any
new technology. Thus, with automation, for example, the new patterns of
human association tend to eliminate jobs; it is true. That is the negative
result. Positively, automation creates roles for people, which is to say depth
of involvement in their work and human association that our preceding
mechanical technology had destroyed. (McLuhan, 1964, p. 23)
One of McLuhan’s favorite examples is the light bulb. The light bulb has
no content and no message. It does, however, create and make possible cer-
tain forms of behavior and relationships. It enables people to read a book
at night, for example, and it creates a new business: selling light bulbs and
light fittings and distributing the electricity consumed by people.
Whether the light is being used for brain surgery or night baseball is a mat-
ter of indifference. It could be argued that these activities are in some way
the “content” of the electric light, since they could not exist without the
electric light. This fact merely underlines the point that “the medium is the
message” because it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and
form of human association and action. The content or uses of such media
are as diverse as they are ineffectual in shaping the form of human associa-
tion. Indeed, it is only too typical that the “content” of any medium blinds
us to the character of the medium. (McLuhan, 1964, p. 24)
What is relevant from a psychological, social, and cultural perspective

is not what is said on WhatsApp, but that the smartphone, as a medium,
creates what could be called a cultural ecology, involving certain social

relationships, cultural practices, and activities and psychological forms
of life. Watching TV, video gaming, surfing the Internet, for example,
are highly pervasive activities, which require a wide range of complex
cognitive and motor skills. Indeed, such activity can be seen as intense
training of a number of psychological processes such as visuospatial
intelligence (iconic representation, spatial visualization) and multitask-
ing skills (Greenfield, 2009a), working memory, or motor performance
(Kühn et al., 2014).
Again, what matters is not the content that appears on TV, video games,
or the Internet, but the culture –the cultural ecology –that the medium
ends up creating: its psychological and social consequences. For example,
TV changed certain social routines; it had certain psychological and social
consequences that, for McLuhan, involved changes in scale or rhythm or
pattern that the medium introduces into human affairs and daily activities.
Another example: the railway did not introduce movement, but it did accel-
erate and expand the scale of previous human functions, creating brand
new types of cities, work, and leisure. This was totally independent of the
cargo –that is, the content –of the medium we call the railway. Hence, it
is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of social and
cultural interactions. This can be seen in the new ways of working that
the Internet has produced or, for example, the changes in the routines of
Congolese fisherwomen who have stopped simply taking their daily catch
to market in the hope of selling some or all of it. Now they wait for calls on
their mobile phones from customers before delivering fresh fish to them
(Schmidt & Cohen, 2013).
In this context, we need to recognize that it was Castells (1996) who was
one of the first to theorize about the meaning and scope of the “Network
Society.” This is how he referred to today’s dominant form of social organi-
zation, otherwise known as the Information or Digital Age, which uses new
technologies and communication systems distributed on digital networks.
Of course relationships and social networks have always existed through-
out the history of humankind. However, digital media (via the Internet)
has hugely facilitated the creation and dissemination of such relationships
between people. The Internet has induced profound changes in production
(the organization of the economy), power (the organization of the state
and its institutions), and experience (the organization of people and their
relationships and lived experiences).
Like McLuhan, Vygotsky also believed technologies (and signs and
symbols) are extensions of human faculties: writing is an extension of
Digital Media – an Extension of Man 13
memory and thinking, for example. However, Vygotsky goes a little

further by stating that what sets our species apart is an ability to regu-
late our behavior, and that of others, through the creation and use of
signs and symbols –also called psychological tools (Kozulin, 1998), arti-
facts (Cole, 1996), and prosthetic devices (Bruner, 1990) –which enable us
to amplify our psyche and overcome our biological limitations (in the
same way as, for example, an airplane can overcome our limitations of
mobility).
In this regard, culture is defined as a collection of “material and sym-
bolic tools that accumulate through time, are passed on through social pro-
cesses, and provide resources for the developing child” (Lightfoot, Cole, &
Cole, 2009, p. 54). The abacus, crayons, the phone, restaurants, the church,
cars, Navajo cradleboards, mathematical equations, musical notation, the
Star of David, Facebook, and Chinese characters are examples of mate-
rial and symbolic tools that affect our daily life, organizing our behavior
and modifying our relationship with the environment. In this way, actual
human behavior is, in fact, culturally mediated behavior. And culture –
specifically human culture –is the result of a historical accumulation of
tools both symbolic (mathematical equations or musical notations) and
material (a mobile phone or a house) that can regulate the behavior of
people: a traffic light allows us to cross the street, a calculator allows us to
do sums, and an educational law can organize a school.
As we said in the introduction, this involves intentional conditioning
(Esteban-Guitart, 2013), which explains the specificity of our relationship
with the medium. In short, people are no longer constrained or condi-
tioned biologically because their environment can be deliberately manipu-
lated: by setting an alarm clock for 7:00 A.M. we counteract our “biological
clock.” Hence the human psyche and behavior is to be found scattered
among local contexts of activity. By using and manipulating cultural arti-
facts, we broaden our ranges of activity. What Vygotsky (1978, 1997) called
the principle of signification (creation and use of signs) according to which
people introduce artificial, arbitrary, and conventional stimuli (to a coin,
for example) to give meaning to their behavior and to allow their psycho-
logical acts to be governed from outside (making a decision, for example,
by tossing a coin).
Tying a knot as a reminder, in both children and adults, is but one example
of a pervasive regulatory principle of human behaviour, that of signification,
wherein people create temporary links and give significance to previously
neutral stimuli in the context of their problem-solving efforts. (Vygotsky,
1978, p. 74)
But human behaviour is distinguished exactly in that it creates artificial

signalling stimuli, primarily the grandiose signalization of speech, and in
this way masters the signalling activity of the cerebral hemispheres. If the
basic and most general activity of the cerebral hemispheres in animals and
in man is signalization, then the basic and most general activity of man that
differentiates man from animals in the first place, from the aspect of psy-
chology, is signification, that is, creation and use of signs. We are using this
word in its most literal sense and precise meaning. Signification is the cre-
ation and use of signs, that is, artificial signals (. . .) Man introduces artificial
stimuli, signifies behaviour, and with signs, acting externally, creates new
connections in the brain. Together with assuming this, we shall tentatively
introduce into our research a new regulatory principle of behaviour, a new
concept of determinacy of human reaction which consists of the fact that
man creates connections in the brain from outside, controls the brain and
through it, his own body. (Vygotsky, 1997, p. 55)
In short, technology –devices or media –is neither inherent nor ancillary to

our behavior; rather, it is a part of it, assisting, accompanying, and manipulat-
ing our behavior in certain ways. The invention and use of artifacts –auxiliary
devices, artificial stimuli –to meet our psychological challenges such as
comparing, selecting, communicating, remembering, creating, thinking,
and so forth, signifies behavior from “outside,” from culture.
Hence, we can talk of TV-centric, PC-centric, or mobile-centric soci-
eties. Ultimately, television, computers, and mobile phones are media that
regulate human behavior; social relationships, routines, and lifestyles; and
teaching and learning situations, and they help to make up the psychologi-
cal architecture of people.
From a TV-Centric Society to a Mobile-Centric Society

In Spain in 2014, according to the Spanish National Institute of Statistics
(INE, 2014), 74.4% of homes had access to the Internet (almost 5% more
than in 2013). For the first time, there were more people using the Internet
(76.2%) than using computers (73.3%) and 77.1% of all Internet users
used smartphones to surf the web.
Indeed, already in 2012, it was estimated that 90% of all media inter-
actions in the United States were screen based, via smartphones, tablets,
laptops, or television and only 10% of all media interactions were non-
screen based: radio, newspapers, and printed magazines. It is estimated that
people spent around 4.4 hours of their leisure time in front of screens each
day using four primary media devices: smartphone (17 minutes, average
From a TV-Centric Society to a Mobile-Centric Society 15
time spent per interaction), tablet (30 minutes), PC/laptop (39 minutes),
and TV (43 minutes) (Google, 2012).
Today, people across the planet use mobile devices for browsing the
Internet, social networking, shopping online, searching for information,
managing finances, planning a trip, watching online videos, creating and
sharing pictures, and so on. And we do these activities simultaneously and
in parallel (multitasking) much of the time. We use laptops or tablets to
search for information while we are watching TV and share what we are
doing by mobile phone, for example.
The media in McLuhan’s and Vygotsky’s society was, of course, very
different from the one that surrounds us today. McLuhan’s society was
TV-centric, given that television –first broadcast publicly by the BBC in
England in 1936 –had become the medium that revolutionized people’s
daily lives and lifestyles. However, the impact of television as a medium
and as a cultural ecology (in the TV-centric society) was soon added to by
the appearance and use of personal computers (in the PC-centric society).
And now, digital mobile devices (smartphones) and other digital technolo-
gies, such as tablets, have become the mediating element of endless human
actions and interactions integrating other devices, such as television and
radio, into their uses and applications.
In this sense, what I mean by the mobile-centric society (MCS) is
The globalized and networked practices that have arisen from the massive
penetration of digital media in our everyday lives, routines and activities.
In other words, our work, business, learning and relationships have incor-
porated and are mediated by digital devices.
The idea of the MCS captures the psychosociocultural consequences of

media characterized by their mobility; ubiquity; portability; and the inte-
gration of multiple devices, applications, and functions.
Our everyday digital devices are a real extension of ourselves.
Smartphones introduced a new scale in our affairs. For example, certain
associations of a particular activity to a specific physical context have dis-
appeared. The place of work no longer matters to many people because
they can work at the office but also at the train station, at home, or in any
bar or restaurant. In our pockets, we take our family, friends, and connec-
tions and we can connect and disconnect with them just as we can with our
work: anywhere, anytime.
I suspect this will accelerate in the coming years as digital media pene-
trates everyday artifacts such as glasses, watches, household appliances, and
places such as, for example, museums. The challenge of the MCS seems
to be to find ways to develop and implement devices based on the new

architectures of software and hardware integrated into everyday objects
that can work simultaneously, that can incorporate different features and
applications, and that can be integrated and interface with offline, real-
world environments. All of this must be mediated by the active participa-
tion of users –no longer simply consumers –whose profiles, experiences,
and identities are distributed among the devices, both creating and sharing
what they do. A good example is the “Google Glass” project, augmented
reality glasses that integrate different technologies and features such as
voice recognition, allowing users to take and share photos, obtain geospa-
tial information, or communicate with other people.
However, emphasizing the transition from the TV-and PC-centric
society to a mobile-centric society does not mean the end of television and
radio or personal computers.
According to a recent study in Spain by the Asociación para la Investigación
de Medios de Comunicación (AIMC) conducted from October 2013 to May
2014 (AIMC, 2015), 30.4% of the population were daily newspaper read-
ers, 61% listened to the radio each day, and 88.1% watched television each
day (slightly down from almost 90% a year before: from October 2012 to
May 2013). People continue to watch TV and use computers but more and
more of them are also using the Internet.
In the same study, by May 2014 around 60% of Spaniards had looked
at the Internet the previous day –rising from 50.7% the previous year
(AIMC, 2015). Nevertheless, two things have changed abruptly. First,
there has been a convergence and integration of devices (TV, radio, press,
Internet access) into digital media (latest generation smartphones, for
example). Second, as the AIMC study shows, there is a trend of increasing
Internet use and a decrease in the consumption of newspapers, supple-
ments, magazines, or TV. For example, in 1997 the penetration of TV
was 90.7% compared to 88.1% in 2014, while during the same period,
Internet use increased from 0.9% in 1997 to 58.5% in 2014 (AIMC,
2015). These figures further illustrate the transition from the PC-centric
society to the MCS.
According to Telefonica Foundation (Fundación Telefónica 2015),
in Spain it is estimated that 26.2 million people regularly went on the
Internet in 2014, and this number is increasing every year. That represents
76.2% of all Spaniards, 4.6% more than in 2013. Significantly, for sixteen-
to twenty-four-year-olds the figure is 98.3%. Mobile broadband grew by
20% compared to the previous year and mobile data traffic grew by 81%
in 2013; 80% of Internet users access the Internet using a mobile device.
Some Traits of the Mobile-Centric Society and the New Ecology of Learning 17
Moreover, in 2014, wearables burst onto the scene with devices such as
watches able to monitor physical activity with functions related to health.
Web-connected cars, glasses, and watches –the “Internet of things” –are
new options for users to access the internet. However, the smartphone is
still the engine of the Internet’s growth. It is obvious that the Internet
has changed our way of connecting with others, with 76.9% of people
now using it to communicate and doing so mainly with smartphones and
instant messaging applications that are overtaking social network sites.
E-commerce is another major activity carried out on the Internet. Fifteen
million Spanish people regularly shop online while many use it for local
shopping searches: four out of five users would be willing to receive local
advertising and 30% of online buyers would make purchases at local shops
(for details see Fundación Telefónica, 2015).
Worldwide, the trend is similar. The average rate of mobile phone sub-
scriptions in 2012 reached the equivalent of 96% of the world population,
when only four years before it stood at 68%. Mobile broadband subscrip-
tions have grown by an average of 40% annually since 2007 and in 2012
stood at around 1,600 million worldwide. This means 60% of Internet users
are also users of mobile broadband Internet, which surpasses the figure
for landline broadband subscriptions. In 2013, 38% of the world’s popu-
lation, and the percentage is rising, are Internet users and it is estimated
that there are more than 1,720 million social network users (Fundación
Orange, 2014).
All these data illustrate and encapsulate the world in which we live: the
mobile-centric society. In this sense, the term emphasizes the importance
and the central role in our society of mobile digital devices and the flow
of information and experiences through the web, which means that, to a
greater degree than ever before in history, the offline world has been pen-
etrated by the online world, and vice versa.
Some Traits of the Mobile-Centric Society and

the New Ecology of Learning
At this point, we need to clarify the traits of the culture –the message –
generated by the mediation of digital tools to understand how we experi-
ence it, in general, and how we learn from it, in particular. Specifically,
I focus on the six traits of the MCS presented in González-Patiño and
Esteban-Guitart (2014; Table 1.1). Attention is not directed to other cul-
tural effects such as on business, the economy, or labor, despite the pro-
found positive and negative effects that exist in all human experiences
Table 1.1. Some traits of the mobile-centric society
Multimodality Information consumption has become specialized

while at the same time diversifying into a
multimodal, multichannel, and multiplatform
universe: text, sound, image, and senses integrated
into connected multiple devices.
Convergence Technological convergence (combination of
knowledge and artifacts from different fields) and
“cultural convergence” (Jenkins, 2006): flow and
cooperation of content, industries, and people
across multiple media platforms.
Creating and sharing People create and automatically disseminate (i.e.,
publish, share) what they bring to the medium and
it becomes a public event: “participatory culture”
(Jenkins, 2006).
Fluid communities of Liquid creation and dissemination of practices
interest and relationships between people because of
their flexibility –easy to make and unmake
connections –around common interests: “affinity
spaces” (Gee, 2013).
Distributed knowledge Emergence of a Social Mind that is the result of the
summation and distributed collaboration of people
and cultural artifacts: “collective intelligence”
(Jenkins, 2006); “Mind” (Gee, 2013).
Autonomous and Individual people who, on the Internet, constitute
personalized their own networks of interest and affinities
management and their own groups and circles: “networked
individualism” (Castells, 2001).
Source: Based on González-Patiño and Esteban-Guitart (2014).
(Castells, 1996), but rather aimed at understanding the experience of

learning in the MCS.
What I mean by multimodality, the first of six principles described here,
is the integration of written text with images and new emerging forms of
online–offline modalities. In the context of a written literacy in traditional
school practices, the TV-centric society revolved around an iconic, oral,
and visual culture. The PC-centric society, in its initial phase of imple-
mentation and development, brought the two legacies together, offering a
technology –electronic text –that was both written and visual. This mul-
timodality of electronic text, which integrated text, images, sound, and vid-
eos, expanded further in the MCS, in which the medium is bidirectional
and its use is primarily tactile. Perhaps the biggest innovation in the digital
culture is the importance and recognition of the senses, such as, for exam-
ple, gesture in the Nintendo Wii®, and the incorporation and convergence,
expected to increase, of online (images, texts) and offline (senses such as
smell, touch, and taste) experiences.
To this informational multimodality we need to add another, in relation
to the device (or medium) itself. That is, in the MCS, there are countless
digital media devices (video games, smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc.) that
allow us to access, construct, and negotiate meanings. And these devices
tend to converge and integrate with one another, the paradigmatic example
being the smartphone, which integrates different applications and enables
us to perform various activities way beyond a simple phone call. With a
smartphone, we can access the Internet, read e-books and digital news-
papers, watch television (and download movies and TV series), listen to
music and radio, record and upload videos (YouTube), communicate and
participate in social networks (WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn,
Instagram, email, etc.), take and share photographs, shop, play, and take
part in an ever-increasing number of other activities. Indeed, this multi-
modality is a result of two kinds of convergence, the second trait of the MCS.
Hence, when I talk about convergence, I do so in two senses. First,
technological convergence involves the development of new products via a
new combination of knowledge that comes from different fields. For exam-
ple, the combination of nanotechnology with the information and com-
munication technologies facilitated the development of the ubiquitous,
wireless, barely visible devices that carry out the same functions that were
previously done by much bulkier objects. Compare, for instance, the wire-
less access to the Internet provided by a latest generation mobile phone
to the rather more robust personal computer typical of the PC-centric
society. Smartphones were developed precisely as a result of technological
convergence.
The second type of convergence, and one more relevant for our pur-
poses, is cultural convergence (Jenkins, 2006). In this case, it is a cultural
change that affects the use of media, a use related to what the author calls
participatory culture, and is linked to the third characteristic feature of the
MCS: creating and sharing.
According to Jenkins (2006), convergence means the “flow of content
across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media
industries, and the migratory behaviour of media audiences who would
go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experiences
they wanted” (p. 14). The so-called Web 2.0, and the digitization of media,
brings with it a new relationship between the product (the medium) and
the user. In the MCS, people no longer passively consume what the media
offers, as occurred in the TV-centric society. People create and, very easily
and sometimes automatically, disseminate (i.e., publish, share) what they
bring to the medium and it becomes a public event. This is what Jenkins
refers to as the participatory culture, which is characterized by affiliations
(members who form part of online communities focused on various forms
of exchange, such as Facebook, Instagram, MySpace, etc.); expressions (pro-
ducing texts or images via YouTube or Instagram); collaborative problem
solving (working online and in teams to complete tasks and develop new
knowledge such as in Wikipedia or in certain online games); and, finally,
circulation (sharing the flow and the results of using communications media,
e.g., in blogs, as well as of everyday experiences to do with, e.g., hotels, res-
taurants, gaming, or cities).
This participatory culture takes place around specific kinds of com-
munities of practice. According to Lave and Wenger (1991), we learn and
develop from participation in communities of practice in which, initially,
we take part on the periphery before assuming a more participatory role,
with more autonomy and responsibility in doing a particular task: what
Bruner and colleagues, in their classical work, called the process of scaffold-
ing (Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1976).
In short, human learning and psychological development are a conse-
quence of the active process of social participation in particular communi-
ties of practice or among groups of people who share a common objective
and are involved in activities based on sharing knowledge, resources, and
skills.
The paradigmatic communities of practice from the Internet are a
group of people discussing or engaged in problem solving around a com-
mon interest, such as their hobbies, music, or videogames. These com-
munities are “liquid” (Bauman, 2006) because of their flexibility: easy to
connect to and disconnect from and based more on emotion than on cog-
nition. In this regard, Gee (2013) refers to these virtual spaces as affin-
ity spaces where people can enter and contribute in many different ways
for different reasons. A Facebook group relating to a sports team, or a
game or a singer, would be examples of liquid communities of interest.
They can also be social movements such as, according to Castells, the first
informational guerrilla movement –the Zapatista movement in Chiapas,
Mexico –or other recent social movements such as the Arab Spring and
the Egyptian Revolution of 2010–2011 and the indignados [the indignant]
in Spain, which emerged as a visible movement, the Movimiento 15-M, on
May 15, 2011 (Castells, 2012).
So these various “common interests” can differ substantially: center-

ing on political or religious causes, on a play, a pop group, on a theoretical
perspective or field of knowledge, on a country, and so forth. What all
of these new groups or communities seem to share is their flexibility and
across-the-board character compared to other more rigid collectives that
are governed by vertical and hierarchical structures, such as political par-
ties or religious groups. Also, what underpins communities is not neces-
sarily a rational discourse or theoretical idea, but an interest, a willingness,
that enables the affective bonding of the group: solidarity with a cause, be
it a game, a political struggle, or some specific knowledge.
This is an aspect linked to the specific mechanism that explains lan-
guage acquisition, communication, and cultural transmission according to
Michael Tomasello (2014), that is, shared intentionality: the capacity, moti-
vation, and ability that drive us to share goals and intentions with others
in collaborative activities as well as sharing experience through joint atten-
tion, cooperative communication, and teaching. These liquid communities
of interests are based on the fact that we share experience simply for the
sake of sharing them, a feature that appears to be exclusive to, or at least
particularly developed in our species (Lázaro & Esteban-Guitart, 2014).
And we might add that this also becomes essential in an environment in
which there is so much information and knowledge that it would be utterly
impossible for a single mind or person to deal with it. This brings us to the
fifth characteristic feature of the MCS: distributed knowledge.
In the TV-centric and even the PC-centric society, or at least in its
beginnings, knowledge had a location –“it was known” –and the indi-
vidual passively absorbed and received it. There was the well-defined
figure of the expert –“the teacher” –who became the transmitter of
this knowledge that responded to a solid society, with the school being
the custodian and transmitter of such knowledge. However, since the
1990s, the flows of information reached such proportions, because of
the Internet, that people, or schools, or encyclopedias, could not keep up
with the available updates in knowledge and thus soon lost relevance and
became outdated. Largely because of services such as Twitter, for exam-
ple, information is updated in real time, surmounting the traditional
operation and the flow of the press of the TV news. According to some
theorists, such as the aforementioned Jenkins and Gee, the end product
of this is the emergence of a new social mind or identity, which is the
result of the summation and distributed collaboration of people and cul-
tural artifacts. Currently no person can absorb all the information and
knowledge available. Therefore, by sharing resources and combining
skills, people arrive at knowledge and a “collective intelligence” is con-

structed (Jenkins, 2006). According to Gee (2013), this is a Mind (with
a capital M) as opposed to small, individual minds. “A Mind is what you
get when you plug minds and tools together in the right way” (Gee,
2013, p. 165). A Mind is synonymous with a set of devices and people
working together for a common purpose, interest, or purpose: sharing
an objective, that is, the type of relationship we referred to earlier as
liquid communities of interest.
Finally, the MCS favors the emergence of a social model that Castells
(2001) calls “networked individualism.” This consists of individual people
who, on the Internet, constitute their own networks of interest and affini-
ties and their own groups and circles. In this sense, through personal blogs,
or more so via digital hubs, users can integrate access to social networks
and applications, as well as publish texts (writings, pictures, videos, etc.) and
thus create an authentic identity artifact. Indeed, the user’s digital media
is converted into his or her distributed identity; the user’s devices can be
personified, incorporating and integrating his or her needs, interests, and
experiences. At the level of education, Personal Learning Environments
(PLEs) are perhaps the embodiment of Castells’ networked individual-
ism. PLE is a relatively recent term, which appears to have been coined
in 2004, in “The Personal Learning Environments Sessions” at the JISC/
CETIS (Joint Information Systems Committee –Centre for Educational
Technology Interoperability Standards) conference. Since then, they
appear to have become a tool for helping students to take control of and
to manage their own learning trajectories, allowing social networks to be
used, linking formal and informal learning experiences and using net-
work protocols (peer-to-peer, web services, content syndication, etc.) that
enable resources and links to be connected in a personally managed space
(Dabbagh & Kitsantas, 2012).
These six characteristics are not disconnected from each other, nor
do they represent an exhaustive list of MCS characteristics, but I believe
they are relevant to our understanding of the main features of the cultural
ecology (modes, uses, and practices) generated by mobile digital devices.
Ultimately, they help to place the shared and diffused relationships and
experiences of people at the center of our analysis, as well as recognizing
the multidimensionality of contemporary cultural “prostheses” character-
ized by the incorporation of nanotechnology and digital culture in every-
day tools and devices.
Faced with this new society and culture that we have briefly dis-
cussed in the preceding text, the first challenge for formal education is
to ask ourselves what kind of person needs to be “constructed” to meet

the demands of the MCS and to allow them to move freely in it. What
seems clear is that restricting the discussion to academic and school con-
tent is no longer sufficient. Such content currently becomes outdated at
breakneck speed; it is expanding and being distributed in different places,
beyond classrooms, libraries, and encyclopedias. There are a multitude of
scenarios and experiences that can easily become learning resources linked
to the different interests and needs that appear at different times of life,
especially those related to the now frequent career changes or to social
networks. Again, as Banks et al. (2007) say, the learning that takes place
today, more than ever, inside and outside the school, is life-long, life-wide,
and life-deep learning.
Inspired by the work carried out by Brigid Barron, among others, César
Coll has identified some coordinates of what he refers to as the new learn-
ing ecology (see Table 1.2). Like other scholars, Coll (2013) suspects we are
now in a transition period in which the school institution has to profoundly
revise its own what, why, and how.
Indeed, there is broad agreement that we need new outlooks on learn-
ing (rethinking where, when, and how learning takes place) and new mod-
els of formal education that are better suited to the network society in
the digital age, that is, the MCS (Castells, 1996; Erstad & Sefton-Green,
2013; Ito et al., 2013; The Aspen Institute Task Force on Learning and the
Internet, 2014).
In his book Psychological Tools: A Sociocultural Approach to Education, Alex
Kozulin (1998) distinguished two kinds of education, retrospective and pro-
spective. Retrospective or traditional education responds to society’s goal of
transmitting a solid and unquestionable cultural tradition from generation
to generation. “The model of the world and cultural tradition were givens,
and the task of a student was to absorb this tradition and the intellectual
tools associated with it” (p. 154). However, the ongoing rapid changes in a
networked and liquid society in this global and digital age give rise to new
challenges in education.
Prospective education implies that students should be capable of approach-

ing problems that do not yet exist. To gain this ability, students should be
oriented toward productive rather than reproductive knowledge. Thus the
body of knowledge should appear not in the form of results and solutions
but as a creative process, the process of “authoring.” The student should be
involved in “co-authoring” the fundamental laws and principles of a given
field. The focus of learning thus shifts from delivering information to the
students to building the student’s learning potential. (Kozulin, 1998, p. 154)
newgenrtpdf
Table 1.2. The coordinates of the new learning ecology compared to the modern-traditional learning ecology
24
Modern-traditional learning ecology: Educational New learning ecology: Educational action distributed via
action focused on universal schooling (the networks, transitions among learning settings, and lifelong
“encapsulation of learning”) challenges
Social purpose Traditional education –retrospective (Kozulin, Modern education –foresight (Kozulin, 1998): learners address
of the school 1998): absorb the universal pattern, the cultural issues that do not yet exist at the time of learning.
tradition, and the intellectual tools associated with it.
Nature of Results and solutions already known. Authorship (productive knowledge):“creating and sharing.”
knowledge
Where and with Formal educational institutions (“school”) with Multiplicity of educational scenarios and agents: “distributed
whom educational professionals, the “teachers.” knowledge”
When? Principally, the early years of life. Necessarily lifelong.
What? Stable, solid, socially valued cultural knowledge. Basic competencies or skills for the twenty-first
century: critical thinking, knowledge management, digital
literacy, intellectual and social openness, positive self-core
self-evaluation, teamwork and collaboration (Barron, 2006;
Castells, 2001; National Research Council, 2012).
What for? To be able to develop, subsequently, a personal and To become competent learners able to continue learning
professional life project. throughout life.
How? Through deliberate, systematic, and planned educational Through participation in communities of interest, practice, and
action (teaching). learning: “Liquid communities of interest.”
Literacy Predominantly technologies based on the written Using different languages and ways of representing
language and the skills required to use them (learning information (predominantly visual and symbolic
to read and write). language) derived from digital ICT as gateways to
information: “multimodality” and “convergence.”
*Source: Adaptation of Coll (2013, p. 32), González-Patiño and Esteban-Guitart (2014, pp. 73–74), and Kozulin (1998).
It seems to me there are two ideas to keep in mind when considering

prospective education and the new learning ecology (which are compared to
traditional schooling in Table 1.2). First, learning involves a combination
of working with and creating artifacts (knowledge, competences, activi-
ties, etc.) to meet learning challenges throughout our lives. Second, learn-
ing involves taking into account the learning trajectories and experiences
embedded in any act of knowledge creation.
The global knowledge economy and the changing needs of the labor
market oblige individuals to learn over the course of their lives (life-long
learning) and across a range of formal and informal social settings and
activities (life-wide learning). Nevertheless, informal ways of learning are
often ignored, unrecognized, or even proscribed by mainstream formal
education, especially in regard to students from underrepresented groups
(low income, ethnic minority, foreign origin, etc.) (McIntyre, Rosebery, &
González, 2001).
Some exceptions to this misunderstanding include a number of emerg-
ing educational approaches with a sociocultural focus, such as “learning
lives” (Erstad & Sefton-Green, 2013), “connected learning” (Ito et al.,
2013), or the “funds of knowledge” approach (González, Moll, & Amanti,
2005), among others. What all of these projects have in common is a rec-
ognition that different modalities of learning exist within our lives and we
need to forge links between these different spheres of learning. To me this
represents a renewal of Bronfenbrenner’s legacy, in particular his notion of
the mesosystem:
A mesosystem comprises the interrelations among major settings con-

taining the developing person at a particular point in his or her life. . . An
ecological approach invites consideration of the joint impact of two or
more settings or their elements. This is the requirement, wherever pos-
sible, of analyzing interactions between settings. (Bronfenbrenner, 1977,
pp. 515, 523)
However, the MCS represents a break with the traditional understanding

of any “microsystem.” According to Bronfenbrenner (1977, p. 514):
A microsystem is the complex of relations between the developing person

and the environment in an immediate setting containing that person (e.g.,
home, school, workplace, etc.). A setting is defined as a place with particular
physical features in which the participants engage in particular activities in
particular roles (e.g., daughter, parent, teacher, employee, etc.) for particu-
lar periods of time. The factors of place, time, physical features, activity,
participant, and role constitute the elements of a setting.”
It can be argued that we should add another element to our contemporary

setting, namely the participation in various online and offline communities
of practice mediated by other people and by various psychological tools,
signs, or artifacts.
From a sociocultural and ecological approach toward human develop-
ment, Barron (2004, 2006) defines a learning ecology as the set of activity
contexts found in physical or virtual spaces that provide opportunities for
learning: activities, relationships, and many types of resources both in and
out of school. In that sense, a recent study conducted with young students
who recorded their specific learning experiences during one week revealed
the presence of informal, or every day, life activities in the meaningful
learning experiences that were detected. It also revealed the use of digital
technologies as learning resources and illustrated not only the assistance
of friends and family in the learning process but also the “autonomous
and personalized management” of learning (Esteban-Guitart, Serra, &
Vila, under review). In conclusion, this study, among others (Barron, 2006;
Erstad & Sefton-Green, 2013; Reyes & Esteban-Guitart, 2013), illustrates
how people learn through participation in a whole range of different activi-
ties across sites and over time, expanding the intellectual boundaries of
learning research that takes into account the multiple spaces and life trajec-
tories that make up experience across our life-worlds. This is what learning
looks like in our MCS.
Some Principles of Learning for the Twenty-first Century

If we take a look at theories of learning developed during the twentieth
century we can, according to Hakkarainen and colleagues, distinguish
at least three metaphors of learning: the acquisition metaphor (learning as
knowledge acquisition), the participation metaphor (learning as participa-
tion in cultural practices and social activities), and the knowledge creation
metaphor (learning as knowledge creation) (Paavola & Hakkarainen, 2005).
According to the authors, the knowledge creation metaphor, or what
Kozulin calls prospective education, is particularly relevant in a knowledge
society (which I refer to here as the MCS).
Knowledge- creation models conceptualize learning and knowledge

advancement as collaborative processes for developing shared objects of
activity. Learning is not conceptualized through processes occurring in
individuals’ minds, or through processes of participation in social practices.
Learning is understood as a collaborative effort directed toward developing
some mediated artifacts, broadly defined as including knowledge, ideas,

practices and material or conceptual artifacts. The interaction among
different forms of knowledge or between knowledge and other activities
is emphasized as a requirement for this kind of innovativeness in learn-
ing and knowledge creation. (Paavola, Lipponen, & Hakkarainen, 2004,
pp. 569–570)
For me, however, the process of creating knowledge artifacts is not fully
explained by the metaphor used by Paavola and colleagues (the “knowledge-
creation model”). I would say that Dewey, Piaget, Ausubel, Vygotsky, and
“followers” of the constructivist and the participation metaphor would
probably agree that we learn from experience and learning happens by
doing and creating shared artifacts. Instead of these three metaphors, I pre-
fer to summarize the advances made in the learning sciences during the
twentieth century by using the following three approaches:
1. The cognitive side of learning: Meaningful learning as a

construct-and-create knowledge process that works by cognitively
linking new knowledge with prior knowledge (the constructivist
metaphor of Piaget, Ausubel, and Bruner’s earlier work)
2. The sociocultural side of learning: Learning as an evolving par-
ticipation in cultural practices and supportive relationships (the
participation metaphor of Vygotsky, Bruner’s later work, Rogoff,
Lave, and Wells)
3. The ecological side of learning: Learning as connection between
different spheres and settings of learning, in school and out of
school (the transition or mobile metaphor of Bronfenbrenner,
Barron, Erstad and Ito, among others).
We can classify most of the theories of learning that have been d eveloped –
and are developing –by the emphasis they put on the “subject” in the
analysis. For some, the subject is the first person singular, the person who
organizes and constructs knowledge. For others, the emphasis is on the
relationship between people in dialogical situations located in time and
space. Still others argue that learning is brought about by the establish-
ment of educational continuities between microsystems.
There is probably some truth in all of these approaches and each pro-
vides clues as to what learning really means. However, I prefer the transition
or mobile metaphor because to me this metaphor is particularly relevant in
a society I define by the term MCS. Of course, an integration of the three
theories of learning would improve our understanding and perspective, but
Table 1.3. Six guiding principles of learning for the twenty-first century
Microcultural nature Learning takes place through a process of progressively

of learning more complex interactions between learners and
the people, objects, and symbols in their immediate
external environment on a fairly regular basis over
extended periods of time.
Macrocultural nature Learning is governed by the overarching institutional
of learning patterns of the culture or subculture (economic,
social, education, legal, political systems) of which
contexts, activities, and discourses are the concrete
manifestations.
Contextualization Learning is facilitated when the curriculum is
connected to students’ lives, including prior learning
experiences from their homes and communities.
Identity investment This involves the recognition and positive affirmation
of learner identities through artifacts produced by
learners who exploit their sociocultural legacies,
interests, and meaningful experiences.
Distributed and Learning takes place across a broad range of
networked nature interconnections and processes occurring between
of learning formal and informal social settings and activities.
Social and To learn, we need the support and assistance of others
instrumental more expert than we are and/or cultural artifacts
mediation such as books, video tutorials, or websites.
the ideas behind the funds of identity approach are better understood in
the framework of the participation metaphor and the transition or mobile
metaphor (i.e., the sociocultural and ecological sides of learning).
In any case, I end this chapter by suggesting, based on the literature,
what in my view are the most relevant principles of learning to take into
account prior to introducing the funds of identity approach. It is not a
systematic analysis of the concepts of learning; rather the focus is on the
guiding principles to keep in mind. Ultimately, the funds of identity approach
aims to put into practice the six principles in Table 1.3.
Learning involves an urge –the need to know –that forces us to go
beyond what we can do by ourselves. It seems to me that this urge is at
the heart of the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978): the process
that transforms us from being helped to helping ourselves, from finding out
what we can do with the help of other people or various cultural mediators
to finding out what we can do by ourselves. This learning process always
takes place through participation in cultural practices where we interact
with our environment. The microcultural nature of learning refers to all the
activities and practices we can participate in (e.g., attending an academic

course, group play, solitary play, athletic activities, reading, and so on) and
the consequential process of updating our knowledge, skills, or compe-
tences in line with those experiences. Such forms of interaction with one’s
immediate environment are referred to by Bronfenbrenner (1999) as proxi-
mal processes:
Especially in its early phases, and to a great extent throughout the life
course, human development takes place through processes of progressively
more complex reciprocal interaction between an active, evolving biopsy-
chological human organism and the persons, objects and symbols in its
immediate external environment. To be effective, the interaction must
occur on a fairly regular basis over extended periods of time. (p. 5)
Literally, we transform our identities, knowledge, skills, psychological pro-

cesses (e.g., working memory, spatial representation of the environment,
spatial navigation, strategic planning, motor performance); that is, we
transform our brains by regularly doing particular activities such as playing
music (Elbert et al., 1995), driving a taxi (Maguire et al., 2000), juggling
(Draganski et al., 2004), or playing a Super Mario video game (Kühn et al.,
2014). Looking again at Ratner’s sentence, we are the product of the products
we produce, we could say that the our psychology is –because of the brain’s
neural plasticity (Draganski et al., 2004) –dependent on how it is used and
that it changes to conform to the current needs and learning experiences
of the individual.
However, learning is not only a microcultural process embedded in
participation in cultural practices and particular activities but also a mac-
rocultural process.
Macrosystem refers to the overarching institutional patterns of the culture
or subculture, such as the economic, social, education, legal, and political
systems, of which micro-, meso-, and exosystems are the concrete manifes-
tations. Macrosystems are conceived and examined not only in structural
terms but as carriers of information and ideology that, both explicitly and
implicitly, endow meaning and motivation to particular agencies, social
networks, roles, activities, and their interrelations. (Bronfenbrenner, 1977,
p. 515)
An example of the pervasive impact of the macrocultural forces on educa-

tion is the transformation of school and learning produced by the MCS
and the new ecology of learning, as described earlier. In the “golden age
of capitalism” (Marglin & Schor, 1992) people went to schools and uni-
versities to get nice jobs afterward. Formal education could use the past
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sleep while you may, old fellow.'
Terence drew his mat over him as he lay upon his bed of fern, and with
the readiness of a bushman dropped asleep, while George sat with his knees
drawn up to his chin, thinking out details and planning, as far as he could
beforehand, to meet developments.
The hours passed, he heard the stealthy footsteps of the relief, and caught
a word or two of the low-voiced colloquy as the guard made his report. And
all the time Terence slept comfortably, though the time for his watch had
come and gone.
All at once George started, raised his head and listened intently. What
was that thin, scratching noise at the back of the hut? He lightly laid his hand
upon Terence's shoulder, and the practised bushman was instantly awake,
alert and vigilant.
'Some one is cutting through the thatch,' George breathed into his
comrade's ear.
This was possible enough. The roof, which, after the Maori fashion of
architecture, descended within a few feet of the earth, was thatched with
raupo and other reeds which, though thick, were soft and might easily be
ripped by a sharp knife. The only question was the motive of the intruder.
Presently a piece of raupo, detached from the thatch, fell upon the floor.
The visitor, whoever he was, had penetrated the roof. George stole to the
widening hole, Terence to the door, and so they waited, holding their
revolvers by the barrel, ready for whatever might chance.
'Hortoni!' Just the whispered word; but George's heart leaped, for the
voice was Paeroa's, and he knew that his faithful ally, and not an enemy,
stood without.
'I am here, O Whispering Wind,' he breathed back. 'Why——'
'Hush! Speak not, Hortoni. Do you and Mura take these knives and widen
the hole. I will return.'
Presently, as they ripped and cut, the Maori returned and whispered with
his mouth at the hole: 'Te Taroa, whom the Hawk set to guard you, is asleep.
Hasten, Hortoni, for there are evil spirits in the air, and Life and Death
contend which shall have you.'
Hurriedly he told them how he had come back to the entrance of the
underground world, vaguely suspecting mischief, and found it blocked.
Alarmed, he had fetched Kawainga, wormed a way out, and sent the girl
down the hill to the flax-patch on the west. Then he had crept under the
stockade and learned from the chatter of the sentries that Te Karearea had
suffered a crushing defeat and had fled to the pah to renew his supplies and
ammunition. Further, he learned of the loss of the greenstone club, the
withdrawal of the prisoners' parole, and, knowing well the consequences to
Hortoni if the mere were really gone, had scaled the palisades in order to
urge his friends to escape without loss of time.
The hole in the roof being now wide enough for them to pass through,
Terence very unwillingly went first. George was half-out and half-in when a
sneeze was heard in front of the hut, followed by a yawn and the
comfortable grunt of a man stretching himself. Te Taroa was awake, and,
more, was coming round the hut, as though to atone for his carelessness.
Suddenly he stopped, every keen sense alert, and sprang back, open-
mouthed; but, before he could yell an alarm, the butt of Terence's revolver
crashed down upon his head, and he fell back stunned.
George was now out, and by Paeroa's directions he and Terence removed
their boots, lest they should clatter as they climbed the palisades. The Maori
went first, then Terence passed down the boots and swung himself over, and,
lastly, George jumped on to the platform and laid his hands on the top of the
stockade.
Ten seconds more and he would have been over, but, as he straddled the
fence, the roar of a gun at close-quarters and the 'wheep' of a bullet past his
head so startled him that he lost his balance and fell headlong. But, instead
of rolling into the ditch he banged against the fence and remained suspended
there, unable for the moment to free himself. His sock had caught upon a
projecting stake near the top of the stockade.
'Run!' he gasped. 'I'm after you.'
Not suspecting his plight, Paeroa and Terence sped towards the upper
bridge, while a number of Hau-haus clambered over the fence, leaped, or
floundered through, the ditch, and hurried away in blind pursuit. For the
night was very dark.
George's peculiar position undoubtedly saved his life, for the Hau-haus
deemed him far ahead; so, when the chase had swept by, he reversed his
uncomfortable attitude and dropped into the ditch.
Not caring to run any more risks, he laid his revolver on the top of the
bank before climbing out; but, he had scarcely begun to move when a Maori
swung over the stockade and landed fairly on top of him.
The yell died in the man's throat as George grappled with him, forcing
him back against the sloping side of the ditch with one hand, while he
groped for his revolver with the other. But he had been dragged somewhat to
one side in the short, sharp struggle, and the weapon eluded his grasp. The
Hau-hau turned and twisted, striking ineffectual blows; but he had no chance
against George, whose groping hand presently encountered a long, hard
stone just below the edge of the ditch.
'This will do,' he thought, and laid the man out with a well-directed blow.
Then down he went on his hands and knees to search for his revolver.
Realising how important it was that he should find it, he drew a match from
his pocket and, covering it with his hat, struck it against the stone which he
still held in his hand.
For an instant it flickered, and then flared up. But George, careless of his
exposed situation, knelt, staring with wide, almost frightened, eyes at the
greenstone club, which he held once again in his hands.
CHAPTER XXI
IN THE FLAX SWAMP
Loth as George was to yield to the superstitious feeling which the

coincidences in connection with the greenstone club invariably engendered,
he was almost stupefied at its reappearance at the present juncture. Yet there
was nothing supernatural about it. He had jumped into the ditch almost at the
exact point at which the mere had dropped from his belt, and had naturally
stumbled upon it. He was too well balanced to remain long under the spell of
the occurrence, and with a sigh of thankfulness picked up the club, stripped
the mat from the shoulders of the unconscious Maori, and ran, light-footed,
in the direction of the upper bridge. Before he had gone twenty yards he
bounced into a number of Maoris hurrying towards the same spot.
'Have you caught them?' he said thickly, congratulating himself that the
darkness and the mat about his shoulders would prevent immediate
recognition.
'No hea?' grumbled a Hau-hau. The words, meaning literally 'from

whence?' imply in Maori phraseology that the thing inquired for is nowhere.
It was an admission that the superstitious fellows did not expect to retake the
fugitives.
'Hortoni, indeed, is under the protection of TUMATAUENGA,' growled

another. 'Else would the Hawk have slain him ere now.'
'But Hortoni has lost the mere—so they say,' returned George, quickening
his pace a little, so as to pass the talkative Maori.
'Na! the mere of TUMATAUENGA cannot be lost,' a third observed

sententiously as George drew ahead of him. 'By this time Hortoni again
wears it by his side. Ehara! It is extraordinary, and I do not know why
ATUA should favour a Pakeha. But so it is. Ea!' he grunted disgustedly. 'In
my opinion Hortoni is a god. Who can prevail against a god?'
The first part of this speech was so true that George felt once more that
curious thrill which had so often affected him when the greenstone club was
in question. The last part shocked him and, forgetful of his assumed
character, he impetuously contradicted the astounded speaker.
'Fool! I am no god,' he cried. 'There is but one God, the God of the
Pakehas, and He——'
The next moment he was flying for his life across the tree bridge and
down the hill, while the Maoris, ignoring in their turn his presumed divinity,
scampered after him, their yells blending with the shouts of those who had
already reached the plain.
Stumbling and slipping, George dashed along the track, bruising himself
badly against a hundred obstacles, but grimly silent lest by any outcry he
should drag his friends back into danger. Far behind him he could hear the
voice of the arch-liar Te Karearea calling to him that the greenstone club had
been found, and that all would be well if he would return. Once he collided
with a Hau-hau who rose suddenly from behind a boulder; but his ready wit
saved him, and the two ran side by side to the bottom of the hill, where
George branched off to the right.
'Go that way, my friend, and I will go this,' he cried. 'We will meet at the
bridge and scoop in the Pakehas as with a net.'
He spoke loudly now, confident that his friends were safe, and hoping
thus to convey to them the assurance of his own escape.
Just then the cry of the weka arose almost under his feet, and George
thought for a moment that he had disturbed a real bird, so natural was the
startled note. The next, he remembered the signal they had agreed upon in
case of separation, answered it, and instantly felt his arm grasped by some
one who rose apparently out of the ground beside him.
'He! He!' Paeroa's voice sounded the note of caution and alarm. 'This way,
Hortoni. Into the flax. Quick!'
Hard upon his brown friend's heels followed George, treading cautiously
upon the rough track of manuka[1] which ran more or less interruptedly
across the swampy ground in which the flax-bushes flourished. More than
once his foot encountered bubbling ooze and slime; but Paeroa's hand was
ever ready to help him over these gaps, and for a hundred yards or so they
went along without serious mishap. Then the shouts and cries which came
from scattered points about the plain seemed to concentrate in one long yell
of triumph, a noisy hubbub arose at the point where the manuka pathway
began, and a spattering volley followed them as they stumbled forward.
[1] Leptospermum scoparium.
'They are after us,' panted George, swerving involuntarily as a bullet

smacked into a flax-bush a few inches from him; but Paeroa whispered a
hurried instruction and, even as another small hail of balls whimpered past,
they leaped from the track into the heart of a flax-bush, thence into the midst
of a second, out of that into a third, where George crouched, struggling
fiercely to quiet his rough, laboured breathing, while Paeroa with a last
encouraging word, slipped into a bush a little further on and squatted there.
With one hand grasping the stiff, upstanding leaves, and with the other
fast closed about the handle of his club—the loop of which he had taken the
precaution to secure round his wrist—George sat listening to the murmur of
voices coming gradually nearer. As far as he could judge there were only two
or three Maoris on the track, whence he argued that the commotion at the
other end had been merely a ruse de guerre to induce the fugitives to believe
that they were discovered. Still, it would not do to be too sure, for the Hau-
haus were all over the place, and it might well be that while some advanced
along the track, others were creeping through the swamp, searching each
bush in turn.
Suddenly there fell a silence. The men on the manuka had either stopped
to reconnoitre or given up the search and gone back, and George, feeling
cramped and stiff, was about to change his position, when a low 'he! he!'
from Paeroa warned him to remain still. A moment later a Maori leaped
from the track into a flax-bush, searched it swiftly, and passed on to another.
The sound indicated that the man was coming in his direction, and
George ardently wished that he had continued to hunt for his revolver,
instead of gazing, moonstruck, at the greenstone club. Another leap and the
man was in the clump next to him. One more and——
A stream of fire, the roar of a revolver, and with a loud, choking gasp the
Hau-hau fell dead somewhere in the ooze, while from the adjoining bush
came Terence's voice: 'Quick, George, after me! We are close to the spot
where the river forks. Kawainga is already across. I came back for you.'
Amid the tumult of pursuit, crackling rifle fire and yells, as now and
again an incautious Maori floundered into the swamp, they left their cover
and leaped from bush to bush across the space between the broken end of the
track and the small strip of hard ground by the river. Here Paeroa joined
them and, guided by him, they crossed the stream and plunged into the bush.
Map of the 'Pah' of Death and its surroundings
'Safe!' muttered Terence. 'I had to shoot that fellow, George, for he landed
almost on top of me. I don't think that they will find us now; but we had
better get away as far as possible before we halt. We are not out of the wood
yet.'
'Very much in it, I should say,' answered George, as a thorn-branch

smacked him sharply across the cheek. 'Don't go too fast, Paeroa. It will not
do for us to lose touch with one another. Besides, you must be almost worn
out. Where is Kawainga?'
'Here I am, Hortoni,' said the girl. 'I waited for you on the flat with
Paeroa, though you did not see me.' There was a note of pride in her voice.
'You are both good friends, I know,' replied George. 'Are you weary, Star
of the Morning?'
'Nay; the Maori is never weary when a friend is in danger,' the girl
answered simply. 'Press on, Hortoni. Day is very near.'
'Ay! It must be,' put in Terence. 'Hark, George, those fellows are still
roaring under the impression we have been kind enough to wait for them in
the swamp. I can't understand why that astute chief did not order torches to
be lit.'
'Possibly because he found out that we had got possession of firearms,

and did not wish to give us a good target. By the way, Terence, have you got
the third revolver? I lost mine as I crossed the ditch. My club is all very well;
but——'
'Your club!' Terence's tone expressed amazement. 'You don't mean to say
that the thing has come back to you!'
'No; I don't.' George laughed a little. 'However, I have found it. It was on
the bank of the ditch where we crossed after our last excursion.'
'Oh yes; that sounds quite commonplace,' said Terence. 'All the same I'll
warrant that you were mightily surprised when you found it.'
'I was; and thankful too,' admitted George. 'But you see how easily
everything in connection with the club may be explained when once we
begin to sift matters.'
'I should like to know, then, how it found its way back to you from the
bottom of the sea,' Terence said slyly.
'It was I who brought it back, O Mura.' Paeroa's voice came out of the
gloom ahead of them. 'I found it the first time that I dived, and, as I had been
too hurried to take off my waist-cloth, I hid the mere therein and waited till I
could give it to Hortoni. But he was sleeping with his face towards the gates
of Reinga, so I slipped it under his mats as he lay on his litter—and after that
he got well,' he finished innocently.
Terence drew a long breath. 'Another illusion gone!' he commented.
'Before we are done we shall be forced to believe that the wonderful mere is
only a piece of common greenstone after all. I think that we should halt.
What do you say, Paeroa?'
'Let us rest. The poor fellow must be worn out,' put in George. 'I feel tired
enough myself, now that the hot excitement has died down.'.
After crossing the stream they had turned sharply to the left and struck
into the blazed track which Te Karearea's axe-men had made on the night of
their arrival. Otherwise they would not have been able to get through the
thick bush, and must have fled through the forest by the beaten track, along
which the Hau-haus even now trailed like so many dogs on the scent of a
fox. As it was, their progress had been difficult enough, for the undergrowth
had renewed itself in the intervening weeks, and their low-voiced
conversation came in disjointed sentences as they struggled through the
tangle of fern and creeper which strove to hinder their steps.
'Now, listen to me, all of you,' George said earnestly, as they gratefully
stretched themselves on the fern and divided the food which Kawainga had
carried. 'As soon as it is dawn Te Karearea will organise a hunt for us. If any
of us should be captured, those who escape must not think of the plight of
their friends, but hurry on to the camp of the British or the Friendlies. It is
important that this nest of rebels should be cleared out. Is that agreed,
Terence? Do you understand, Paeroa?'
After some hesitation Terence muttered 'Agreed!' and Paeroa, who had
waited for him to speak first, answered, 'I hear, Hortoni!' and George was
satisfied, knowing that with him to hear was to obey.
As Terence had had most sleep at the beginning of the night, he now took
the first watch and, as the grey dawn stole through the bush in ghostly,
almost ghastly silence, he thought how different it all was from Australia,
where the morning would have been heralded in by the beautiful matin-
hymn of the magpie, so called, the cheerful hoot of the laughing-jackass, and
the exquisite treble and alto of hundreds of smaller birds. Here was nought
but solitude and stillness—a stillness so profound that it began to get upon
Terence's nerves, and he more than once stretched out his hand towards
George; for the sense of companionship was somehow greater if he only
touched his friend's coat—or so he thought.
Presently the sky grew lighter, and the outlines of various objects began
to appear. Right ahead of him, a quarter of a mile away, was the hill where
George and he had lain and watched the Hau-haus at their weird and
blasphemous rites. Down that hill and through this very bush they had run
until pulled up by that tumble into the underground world. If he could only
find that hole again! Why should he not try? The desire grew with the idea.
'I believe I could find it,' he said within himself, rising and stretching his
arms above his head. Then in the midst of a satisfying yawn he dropped
noiselessly out of sight behind the tree against which he had been sitting.
From a hundred different points, ahead and on each side of him, brown
forms were dodging from tree to tree, and from as many different spots
among the fern scarred, brown faces peered, as it seemed, malevolently at
him.
CHAPTER XXII
THE DOOM OF THE HOUSE OF TE TURI
Terence opened his mouth to shout a warning to the sleepers to be up and

away, but, his bush training coming to his aid, he shut it with a snap.
'I don't think that they have seen me,' he thought; 'but it is too late to run
now, at all events.'
He wondered why the advancing Maoris should exercise such caution

when, apparently, not a foe was near. 'It must be their way,' he concluded;
'and as one never knows when——'
The unspoken words jumbled in his brain and his eyes grew round. Two
of the Maoris, crawling from point to point, had suddenly and
instantaneously disappeared, heads down and heels up.
'They have found it!' Terence muttered grimly. 'What a nuisance.' He laid
his hand on George's shoulders, who at once opened his eyes, but lay
perfectly still, mutely questioning.
'Maoris!' whispered Terence. 'The fern is full of them, and two of them
have tumbled into our underground world.'
'Bother take them!' murmured George. 'Let me have a look.'
He peered over the tall fern at a group of Maoris who were standing up
beside the spot at which their comrades had so mysteriously vanished, and
with grave gestures and puzzled frowns were discussing the new situation.
Their faces cleared and they grinned at one another as muffled voices from
below assured them that neither taipo nor taniwha had swallowed their
friends. Then they bent down over the tangled mass of creepers and held a
colloquy with the imprisoned ones.
'They evidently know nothing about the place,' whispered George. 'How
unfortunate that they should succeed where we have so often failed. I think
that we had better wake the others and creep away into the bush while they
are still absorbed with their find; for—— Oh, good heavens! Look at
Paeroa! He is going to his death.'
For the Maori, his alert senses stirred by their low-voiced talk, had
awakened, risen to his knees, and peered over the fern at the newcomers.
Even as George spoke he bounded to his feet, threw his hands above his
head and rushed towards the group of Maoris, shouting: 'Arawa! Arawa! E
tika ana!—It's all right!—Ka kitea te wahi i kimihia mai ai e ratou!—They
have found the place we were looking for!—Kapai Arawa! Kapai Arawa!
Hurrah for the Arawas!'
His long hair, dressed Hau-hau fashion, streamed behind him and, before
any one could intervene, he dashed into the midst of the Arawas.
With a gasp of horror George ran for all he was worth. If at this last
moment Paeroa, the faithful Paeroa, should be—— The dreadful thought
was lost in the rush.
Already Paeroa was overpowered, his weak state allowing him no

possible chance against his stalwart foes. Utterly unmindful of the British
principle of sympathy for the under dog, two Arawas held him by the arms,
another grasped his long hair, pulling his head backwards, while a fourth,
with raised club, was about to dash out his brains.
But with a rush George was among them and, ignoring ceremony, struck
right and left with his fists, upsetting the would-be slayer and those who held
Paeroa as well. Without an instant's delay Paeroa scuttled into the bush,
pending the adjustment of the dispute.
'Pardon, friends!' George said apologetically, turning his glance upon two
who stood ruefully rubbing their swollen noses. 'You were about to kill the
wrong man. That is Paeroa, who brought word of my captivity.'
'And you are Hortoni?' queried a thin, lithe man who was evidently in
command. None of the Arawas seemed either surprised or resentful.
'It is so,' replied George. 'I have just escaped with Mura, Kawainga, and
Paeroa from the nest of the Hawk.'
'Mura! If you mean Tereni, he was slain after the fight at Paparatu,' said
the Arawa chief.
'No; he is here,' corrected George. 'Te Karearea meant to kill him that
night, but I came up in time to——'
'To stop them from shoving me through the gates of Reinga,' put in
Terence, bobbing up from the fern and airing his broken Maori. 'I am very
much alive, I assure you, Chief.' The Arawa leader and he grinned cheerfully
at one another.
'Don't you remember me?' went on Terence. 'You are Te Ingoa, who
imitated the Hau-hau cry that night at our bivouac.'
'Yes; I remember you, O Tereni,' replied the Arawa in English. 'You told
us of Hortoni, and how he had run away from the white-haired chief.'
"The white-haired chief." George heard without understanding. 'What are

we to do, O Te Ingoa?' he asked. 'Even now Te Karearea scours the bush for
us with his young men.'
'While he scours the bush, we may clean up the pah, Hortoni,' the Arawa
replied sententiously. 'Two of my men have fallen down a hole here. They
say that there is quite a large space, but fear to go on lest Taniwha should
lurk at the other end. What am I to do?'
'There is indeed a taipo at the other end,' George answered gravely. 'It is
in the form of a Hawk who devours women and little children.' Then, as the
Arawa's eyes gleamed with comprehension: 'Let me lead you through the
passage, O Te Ingoa. The issue of this hole is close by the Pah of Death,
more than half way up the hill. There is the upper bridge to cross, but——'
'Lead on, Hortoni,' Te Ingoa interrupted excitedly. 'To us shall fall the
honour of clipping the Hawk's talons and blunting his beak. The rest, with
the white-haired chief, your father, are behind. I will send a messenger to
hurry them.'
George turned to Terence, who was smiling sympathetically at him.

'Colonel Cranstoun is evidently not far away,' he said. 'Te Ingoa wishes to
march forward. But don't you think we ought to wait until the others come
up?'
'Decidedly not,' replied Terence. 'Let these fellows do their own killing.
The white-haired chief, as they call him, will be better out of this fuss.'
'I am not sure that the colonel would agree with you,' said George. 'Still,
there are enough of us here, and it is a pity to waste valuable lives.' He
turned to the Arawa. 'The sooner we go the better, Chief.'
'I am ready, Hortoni. Show us the way.'
Without more words George and Terence dropped into the hole—more
circumspectly than on the first occasion—followed by all of the Arawas
except three whom Te Ingoa sent upon the back track. Also, by George's
order Paeroa and Kawainga remained behind, for they were thoroughly
exhausted by their exertions.
When at last the contingent stood beneath the exit on the hillside it was
precisely six o'clock, an hour when ordinarily the pah would have been
humming with the bustle of commencing day. On this day there was bustle,
indeed, but not of the usual kind.
Before disturbing the barricade which Te Karearea had for some reason
placed before the opening, Te Ingoa, his lieutenants, and the two Pakehas
held a final brief conference. George was for waiting until night before
delivering the attack, but the Arawa argued that he would be unable to hold
in his men, who were mad to get to grips with Te Karearea, whose revolting
cruelties had disgraced the name of Maori.
'Then you will suffer terribly,' said George; 'for the place is
extraordinarily strong.'
'We shall of course lose a few as we cross the bridge and rush the walls,'
Te Ingoa agreed coolly. 'That is to be expected. All the same, the Hawk's
nest shall be harried this time, I promise you.'
'Well, I don't want to be a wet blanket,' said George, giving in. 'We two
will do our best to help you.'
'I am sure of that,' Te Ingoa replied heartily, and shook hands, English
fashion. 'As you and Tereni know the lie of the land, you had better go out
first and reconnoitre.'
It was easy enough to displace the barricade and, as the boulders were
thrown aside and sounds from the outer world began to penetrate, it was
evident that something out of the common was afoot. For, borne upon the
morning wind, came the noise of distant shouting, the snapping crackle of
independent rifle fire, and the short, sullen bark of revolvers. Then, as
George and Terence hurled down the last obstruction and excitedly pushed
through the opening, the roar of a heavy volley close at hand stunned their
ears, and to their amazement they saw the plain and hillside alive with men,
fighting furiously, and all, apparently, in the most extraordinary confusion.
'Come out!' shouted George. 'Hold back your men, though, until you have
seen this thing for yourself. I can't make it out.'
'I think I can,' cried Terence, jumping about in his excitement as Te Ingoa
joined them. 'The main body of your force has come up on the heels of the
advance and got between Te Karearea's rascals and the pah. See—the walls
are almost deserted.'
'You are right,' agreed Te Ingoa. 'Those are my kupapas (volunteer

Maoris), and they are settling accounts with the Hau-haus.'
'What are you going to do?' George asked eagerly.
'And thus, almost without a blow struck at itself, falls the Pah of Death,'
said Te Ingoa, half to himself. He waved his hand downwards. 'Ignorant of
our approach—he could hardly be careless of it—Te Karearea has allowed
his men to get out of hand in his desire to recover the greenstone club. One
column of my fellows is busy with the remnant of the garrison, the other is
there by the river, blocking the advance of the returning Hau-haus. What am
I going to do? Why, charge down the hill, take this lot in the rear, and then
join column number two in polishing off the fellows by the river. I never
expected such an easy job, I must say.'
'He talks like an Englishman,' observed Terence, as the Maori dived

below to summon his men, 'and he feels, like an Irishman, sorry that he
won't have enough fighting.'
'He may get as much as he cares for before all is done,' said George. 'All
this is very unlike Te Karearea. I suspect a trick.'
'Well, down we go! Here come Te Ingoa and his merry men.' The whoop
Terence let out would have done credit to a Comanche. 'Hurrah! Stick close
to me, George. I believe the old Hawk has been caught napping.'
It really was so. The crafty Te Karearea, unsettled by the escape of his
prisoners, and still more so by the disappearance of the greenstone club, had
allowed his men to get out of hand, and was now paying heavily for his
error. Perhaps, too, the words of the old prophecy haunted him, and the
hopelessness of averting the ruin of his house still further unbalanced him.
At any rate, instead of playing tricks and laying ambuscades, there he was
on the hillside, fighting like a demon. As the comrades raced down the slope
in advance of Te Ingoa, the desperate Hau-hau turned his head and saw
them, and with a loud howl of fury sprang through the press and made
straight at them.
It was magnificently brave—one man charging two hundred—but the

upward rush of the Arawas to meet Te Ingoa bore back the Hau-haus, and Te
Karearea, shouting hateful words of vengeance, was swallowed up in the
recoiling wave of his own men. Another moment and the Arawas, swooping
down the hill, struck their prey, driving them back upon the weapons of the
Arawas below, and the Hau-haus, like the hard, defiant quartz between the
crushing hammer and the plate, were smashed to pieces.
Armed only with his mere, George was able to do very little execution,
for the Hau-haus who recognised him gave him a wide berth. However
desperate a conflict may be with ordinary folk, there is always a chance of
escape; but when it comes to engaging a wizard armed with a magical club,
it is best to take no chances.
The slaughter was terrific, for the combat was in the old style, hand to
hand. Neither side had had time to reload, and while some swung their guns
by the barrel, others used their ramrods like rapiers, thrusting viciously at
eyes and throats. One wretch, pierced through and through, rushed howling
into the thick of it, the slender steel rod, protruding front and back,
wounding others and barring his own progress, till he was mercifully slain
with a blow from a bone mere.
'Come out of this,' George shouted to Terence, who was fighting back to
back with him. 'It is sickening. Let us go and help our folk by the river.
These fellows are done for.'
'Right!' Terence yelled back, sweeping his clubbed rifle round to clear a
path. His empty revolver had long ago been thrown in the grinning face of a
Hau-hau. 'Come on!' He rushed off, screeching with excitement, under the
impression that his friend was close behind him.
So George had been at the start; but, as he ran, he heard a shout: 'Turn,
Hortoni! Accursed Pakeha, I fear neither you nor your mere. Stop and die!'
Without the least desire to accept this gracious invitation, which

resembled that of the famous Mrs. Brown to the duck, George turned his
head to find Pokeke rushing at him with levelled spear, his eyes glowing and
his mouth agape with hate.
That turn nearly cost George his life, for his foot slipped and he fell
heavily on his face. The long spear sped to its mark, but much fighting had
made Pokeke's hand unsteady. He missed George altogether and, retaining
too long his grasp of the shaft, turned a half somersault and sprawled beside
his intended victim.
Both of them were so shaken that they lay still for some seconds. Pokeke
was up first and, before George could rise, flung himself upon him, grasping
his hair and drawing back his head, while in his right hand he raised his
wooden mere with which to give the coup de grâce.
Now, if ever, the wonderful greenstone club ought to have shown its
power; but, alas! George had fallen with his arm under him, and
TUMATAUENGA'S mere was jammed so tightly beneath his heavy body
that not even the war-god himself could charm it forth.
But, as the wooden club descended, the stock of a rifle, sweeping

horizontally, met it with such violence as to send it spinning many yards
away, while the brass-shod butt, continuing its swing, caught Pokeke a
frightful blow between the eyes, crushing in his skull.
'Not hurt?' shrieked Terence, whose face was flaming. 'Come on!' He
lugged George from the ground. 'Go first!' he screamed, his voice cracking.
'I told you before we left Sydney that I couldn't trust you out of my sight.' He
was almost mad with the fierce joy of his first battle.
'Where is the Hawk?' he sang out to George as they ran down the hill.
'Somewhere in the thick of it,' panted George. 'Haven't seen him since the
start. Come on!'
The combat on the hillside waned to a close; but as yet there had been no
concerted movement towards the river-bridge, where a much smaller force
of Arawas did battle with an outnumbering body of Hau-haus. Still, every
now and then an Arawa from the hill would arrive and take a hand, so that
matters were growing more equal as the friends came racing across the plain.
'Pull up for a moment,' gasped George. 'If we don't get our wind we shall
be brained for a certainty. Where are the white soldiers and Colonel
Cranstoun?—Oh, God help us! Look at that!'
With a horrible fear at his heart he hurled himself towards the bridge, at
the far end of which two Pakehas were defending themselves against a dozen
Hau-haus. Both were elderly, while the hair of one was snow-white; but their
erect carriage, fearless demeanour, and the manner in which they wielded
their old-fashioned swords, occasionally getting in a shot with the revolvers
in their left hands, showed that they were old soldiers, and quite accustomed
to give a good account of themselves.
The construction of the bridge gave them an advantage, and no doubt

they could have held their own against any frontal attack; but what horrified
George and Terence was the sight of Te Karearea, who with four Hau-haus
were hurrying to assail the two old soldiers from behind.
He with his men and George with Terence were running along two sides
of a triangle, the bridge being the apex. If the chief reached it first—No!
George set his teeth and swore he should not.
'Father!' he shouted after one long indrawing of breath. 'Keep at it! We

are behind you!' For he feared that the noise of footsteps racing up behind
would disturb the attention of Colonel Haughton and General Cantor, whose
presence there he could in no way account for.
They were indeed the only white men with Te Ingoa, for Colonel
Cranstoun to his great annoyance had been called south. But he had set the
wheels in motion, and the friendlies, along with Colonel Haughton and his
brother-in-law, had marched against the pah. George had presumed the
"white-haired chief" to be Colonel Cranstoun, never dreaming that his father
and General Cantor had crossed the sea in chase of him as soon as they
learned that he was in New Zealand.
Te Karearea heard George's shout and grinned at him, shaking his

bloodstained mere. He was slightly in advance and running like a deer.
'Aha! Hortoni, they told me up there who the white-haired chief was,' he
yelled. 'Give me the mere of TUMATAUENGA, and I will call off my men.'
'Take it, fiend!' shouted George, leaping across the narrowing apex and
aiming a furious blow at the chief, while Terence and the four Hau-haus
raced for the bridge. One of them Terence brained with his rifle, but the
other three dodged him and ran on, while he despairingly toiled after them,
knowing that he would be too late.
Then to his intense relief he heard the welcome 'wheep' of bullets past his
ears, and first one and then another of the Hau-haus rolled over, dead or out
of action. Two minutes more and a strong party of Arawas under Te Ingoa
himself swarmed round the old soldiers and slew every man of the Hau-haus
who were attacking them.
And now it was the turn of Colonel Haughton and General Cantor to be
anxious, for between George and Te Karearea a fearful combat raged. The
Hau-hau had parried the blow aimed at him, and the Englishman himself had
reeled back before a fierce counterstroke. For a moment after they circled
round one another, like two wrestlers seeking a grip. Then with a shout they
clashed together.
Disregarding his mere, which he allowed to hang from his wrist by its
loop, George fastened the strong fingers of his left hand round the chief's
sinewy throat, while with the other he clutched the fist that closed round the
club and bent the wrist backwards so unmercifully that with a groan Te
Karearea opened his fingers and let his weapon fall. Then, writhing free, he
flung his arms round George and strove to throw him. The mere of
TUMATAUENGA slipped from the dangling wrist and lay unheeded on the
hard ground while the two strong men fought for the possession of it.

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Funds of Identity Connecting

Meaningful Learning Experiences in

Global Literacy in Local Learning Contexts Connecting

Queering Asylum in Europe Legal and Social Experiences

Enriching the Learning Meaningful Extensions for

Discourses of Identity: Language Learning, Teaching,

Dropping Out Why Students Drop Out of High School and

Learning from the Lived Experiences of Graduate Student

Algorithms, Humans, and Interactions : How Do

Investment of Life Insurance Funds David Mccahan

Funds of Identity: Connecting Meaningful Learning Experiences in and out of

Moisès Esteban-​Guitart is a professor of the Department of Psychology

SERIES EDITOR EMERITUS

Books in the Series

Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation

Street Mathematics and School Mathematics

Understanding Practice: Perspectives on Activity and Context

Distributed Cognitions: Psychological and Educational Considerations

The Computer as Medium

Sociocultural Studies of Mind

Sociocultural Psychology: Theory and Practice of Doing and Knowing

Mind and Social Practice: Selected Writings of Sylvia Scribner

MOISÈS ESTEBAN-​G UITART

Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge.

List of Figures page ix

My Own Funds of Identity: A Brief Introduction 1

4 How to Use Students’ Funds of Identity

3.1 Example of an identity drawing page 64

4.4 Example of a comic strip by a Catalan participant 99

1.1 Some traits of the mobile-​centric society page 18

I am indebted to several institutions whose support made the work

Cultural psychology, or the sociocultural perspective in psychology

Terricabras, del Pozo, Alcoberro, Pradas, Zimmer, Pineda, among others,

I had learned about during my participation –​another good memory –​in a

thesis of this book (which we have explored elsewhere: Esteban-​Guitart,

In the third chapter, using an extended version of the multimethod

If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of

markets (Ratner, 2011). The negative consequences include the creation of

attempt to characterize the society in which we live so that we can contex-

Digital Media –​an Extension of Man: Some Remarks

What is relevant from a psychological, social, and cultural perspective

creates what could be called a cultural ecology, involving certain social

memory and thinking, for example. However, Vygotsky goes a little

But human behaviour is distinguished exactly in that it creates artificial

In short, technology –​devices or media –​is neither inherent nor ancillary to

From a TV-​Centric Society to a Mobile-​Centric Society

The idea of the MCS captures the psychosociocultural consequences of

to be to find ways to develop and implement devices based on the new

Some Traits of the Mobile-​Centric Society and

Table 1.1. Some traits of the mobile-​centric society

Multimodality Information consumption has become specialized

(Castells, 1996), but rather aimed at understanding the experience of

So these various “common interests” can differ substantially: center-

skills, people arrive at knowledge and a “collective intelligence” is con-

to ask ourselves what kind of person needs to be “constructed” to meet

Prospective education implies that students should be capable of approach-

It seems to me there are two ideas to keep in mind when considering

A mesosystem comprises the interrelations among major settings con-

However, the MCS represents a break with the traditional understanding

A microsystem is the complex of relations between the developing person

It can be argued that we should add another element to our contemporary

Some Principles of Learning for the Twenty-​first Century

Knowledge-​ creation models conceptualize learning and knowledge

Moisès Esteban-Guitart is a professor of the Department of Psychology

MOISÈS ESTEBAN-G UITART

1.1 Some traits of the mobile-centric society page 18

I had learned about during my participation –another good memory –in a

thesis of this book (which we have explored elsewhere: Esteban-Guitart,

Digital Media –an Extension of Man: Some Remarks

In short, technology –devices or media –is neither inherent nor ancillary to

From a TV-Centric Society to a Mobile-Centric Society

Some Traits of the Mobile-Centric Society and

Table 1.1. Some traits of the mobile-centric society

Some Principles of Learning for the Twenty-first Century

Knowledge- creation models conceptualize learning and knowledge