Attending to Pleasure and Purpose in Multiliteracies Instructional Practices: Insights From Transnational Youths

Abstract

AbstractIn this commentary, the author examines some contributions of the New London Group's theory of a pedagogy of multiliteracies, as well as recent critiques of how this framework has been applied in literacy research and instructional practice. She draws on her research with transnational youths—young people who claim multiple national affiliations and maintain significant ties to two or more countries—to facilitate this analysis. The author's goal is to offer some possibilities for redesigning uses of a pedagogy of multiliteracies to better illuminate dimensions of literate activity, such as pleasure, that are sometimes obscured in classroom life. Redesigned instruction would prioritize building authentic and caring human relationships across difference and affinity, stretching out time for enjoyment of learning processes and activities, and pursuing literacy objectives that students and teachers agree on as valuable.