Becoming Otherwise through Living Literacies in the In-between

• In Event: Language and Literacies

Abstract

This study explores how Bo, a rural Chinese student, navigates identity, aspiration, and belonging during his transition to an elite urban high school. Using living literacies (Pahl & Rowsell, 2020) as a framework, it examines how Bo’s affective and relational practices reconfigure literacy and selfhood amid rural–urban inequities shaped by hukou and suzhi discourses. Through narrative inquiry, participatory mapping, and relational analysis, the study reveals how devalued rural literacies become resources for agency, resistance, and ethical presence. Bo’s story reframes the in-between (Anzaldúa, 2012) as a generative space of becoming, offering insights into how marginalized youth use everyday literacy practices to challenge deficit narratives and imagine more inclusive educational futures.

Author

• Xuanya Zhou, University of Florida