Expansive Learning and Chicana/o and Latina/o Students’ Political-Historical Knowledge

This article examines how Chicana/o and Latina/o youth employed their political-historical knowledge to ’ essays about (im)migration and the plight of (im)migrants. This article demonstrates how students framed (im)migration, positioned themselves within the debate, positioned major political figures, drew on their historical knowledge, and appropriated community discourses of resistance. In many ways, these students already embodied the kinds of critical literacies and position-taking advocated by literacy researchers and educators. This article concludes with a discussion of how educators can draw strategically on student’ sociocultural knowledge, as well as their political-historical knowledge, in the service of expanding their critical literacies.