“The Door Was Always There”: Transnational Youth Leveraging Their Multiliteracies for Civic Justice

Abstract

AbstractIn this practitioner research study, I explored how a pedagogy of multiliteracies supported the civic learning of eight middle and high school Indonesian American youth in a summer literacy program. Tracing how transnational youth face barriers to civic learning and engagement in times of rising inequality and xenophobia, I analyzed the ways in which program participants engaged with a curriculum featuring discussions of contemporary civic issues, transnational literary texts, and opportunities for expression. I found how, using their multiliteracies and border‐crossing lives as resources, participants critiqued systemic issues hidden in everyday interactions, expressed the tensions of claiming transnational identities, and repurposed academic literacies to argue for civic justice. I name the affordances of using multiliteracies‐oriented civic pedagogies that center the semiotic resources, identities, and experiences of transnational youth, as well as the civic openings that such learners themselves identify.