Do Teachers See Students’ Knowledge as a Resource for Change? Exploring Funds of Knowledge in Bangladeshi Primary Schools

Despite policy commitments to inclusive and student-centered education, public primary schooling in Bangladesh remains shaped by centralized curricula, examination pressures, and deficit-oriented views. In this educational framework, the focus is on students’ deficits rather than their strengths. Guided by the funds of knowledge (FoK) framework, this qualitative study explores how primary school teachers identify students’ home- and community-based knowledge, how they perceive it, and how they view the potential of FoK-informed pedagogy. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 government primary school teachers from rural and urban schools across four districts, and data were analyzed thematically. Findings show that students bring diverse FoK, including caregiving, cooking, agricultural work, craftsmanship, creative and performing arts, and physical skills developed through everyday family and community participation. Teachers primarily learned about these resources through classroom discussion, observation, limited home visits, and mothers’ assemblies. Although teachers viewed FoK as highly beneficial for enhancing engagement, confidence, and learning, its classroom enactment was constrained by rigid curricula, exam-oriented accountability, time pressures, and deficit-oriented institutional practices. The study highlights a gap between teachers’ recognition of students’ strengths and their pedagogical use, shaped largely by structural and policy conditions.