It Is Not What You Know But Whom You Know: Expanding Student Social Capital Networks of Knowledge through Critical Pedagogy

Because people learn within social capital networks, an educational praxis is needed within families and schools that develops student critical consciousness about why and how to expand ties to new learning communities of exemplars. Such praxis would involve both overtly negotiating truth claims about culture and class in classroom discussions and also placing students in learning situations of legitimate peripheral participation within communities beyond their initial personal reach.Through critical pedagogy, participants in this study discovered that they were able to reflect on their situation in the world and to plan for social action to transform their situation by developing their own unique social capital networks of success and fulfillment.

David Keith Truscello has taught writing, ESOL and Spanish for over 26 years. He earned his B.A. and M.A. in English at Kent State University and a Ph.D. in Language, Literacy and Culture at UMBC.