ERIC Number: EJ1460576
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Mar
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1081-3004
EISSN: EISSN-1936-2706
Available Date: 2024-08-04
Dancing with BBoy: Transliteracies and Critical Imagination in Superhero Storytelling
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, v68 n5 p470-480 2025
In this article, we describe a year-long superhero storytelling project we facilitated with youth in a midwestern middle school. In this project, students read "Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spiderman," designed superhero stories set in their community, and presented artistic representations of their stories to their families and peers. We present three episodes of mobile storytelling from this project, focusing on Aidan, one of eighteen youth participants. Using tools from theories of transliteracies and critical imagination, we illustrate how Aidan's embodied movement and play constituted critically literate acts. A transliteracies lens oriented toward critical imagination reveals how Aidan fluidly moved between fictional and real worlds to reimagine his experienced realities. These findings indicate a need to expand what counts as literate activity in schools.
Descriptors: Story Telling, Imagination, Media Literacy, Social Networks, Role Models, Literary Devices, Middle School Students, Community Characteristics, Fiction, Learning Activities, Art Expression
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2191/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia, USA; 2The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA