Literacy as social reproduction and social transformation: The challenge of diasporic communities in the contemporary period

This article reviews literature on social reproduction in education, discusses the decline of the paradigm, and argues for its continuing relevance. It examines reproductive and transformative aspects of cross-linguistic literacy practices involving young people from three diasporic communities in the United States, presenting multi-leveled analyses that investigate what is reproduced or transformed by situated literacy practices and how institution-level processes shape such practices. It argues that such scale-sensitive analysis provides insight into new reproductive processes, involving conflicts over language in education, that are themselves rooted in new forms of class conflict rooted in global system dynamics of social polarization.

► We use multi-tiered analysis of language use and evaluation to investigate reproductive processes in literacy and schooling. ► We examine three cases of transnational migrants in crosslinguistic encounters. ► Language difference remains important in reproduction in education because it is linked to social polarization. ► Social polarization is shaped by class dynamics as well as linguistic and cultural practices.