Re-imagining Social Futures: Bi/Multilingual Youths’ Sociocritical Literacies

This paper focuses on a summer writing program we called GANAS with bi/multilingual youth, including English learners and one youth with a learning disability, that sought to facilitate sociocritical literacies (SL) based on youths’ lived experiences to imagine new social futures. Envisioned as a social design experiment, we used testimonio as a primary mediational tool to promote SL, with the goals of advancing: (1) an equity-driven learning ecology, (2) students’ sensemaking and critical thinking, and (3) social change. Using qualitative methods, we collected and analyzed multiple data sources, including youths’ testimonios. Our findings include an illustrative case of a Latino youth that illustrates how the testimonio process facilitated SL, and youths’ engagement in SL through their critical reflections on racism, colorism, linguicism, and their experiences as source for knowledge. We conclude with implications for literacy practitioners and researchers committed to transformative literacies for minoritized youth.