An Introduction to Everyday Youth Literacies: Critical Perspectives in New Times

Abstract

In recent decades literacy has taken on a new face; in their “new” pluralized forms, literacies are proliferating in all aspects of youths’ lives across the porous boundaries of homes, communities and schools, across diverse geographic sites and locations, and across variations in capacities, resources, and access. These broader conceptions of literacies are challenging traditional narrower and less critical understandings of literacy that have been largely limited to the ability of individuals to read and write printed texts. Newer conceptions of literacy take into account sociocultural, ideological, technological and spatial influences on youth literacy practices. As youth claim aspects of these new literacies as their own domain, the meanings, purposes, and intentions of their literacy practices are shifting. Traditional notions of “literacy” are necessarily being reinterpreted in relation to these new literacy practices that continue to emerge from and influence youth.