Practices of conformity and transgression in an out-of-school reading programme for 'at risk' children

A large body of research has demonstrated that the plurilingualisms and pluriliteracies that children and youth bring to classrooms are often not those required for school success. This is even more so for students from underprivileged backgrounds, a demographic where children and youth with family backgrounds of immigration are over-represented. This article reports on ethnographic research at an after-school reading programme for primary school children considered to be at risk of school failure in the old town of Barcelona. Results suggest that the practices of pluriliteracy supported by the programme often conform with those inherent to the children's formal education; that is, with the very practices that have contributed to the children being placed in the programme to begin with. However, through the fine-grained analysis of child-volunteer interactions, certain practices that subtly transgress these norms are identified. It is in such practices that we see potential for educational transformation.