Using Place-Referenced Approaches to Extend Language-Minority Youths' Problem-Solving Abilities and Literacy Engagement

We examine an action research initiative focusing on youths who were born and/or began formal schooling in Canada but raised in homes where the societally dominant language was not extensively spoken. Concepts of place and situation were used as heuristics to extend secondary-level students' problem-solving abilities and literacy engagement andusing activities revolving around youths' locations within family, school, and community ecologiesto stimulate reflection on their personal and socially situated identities. The structure of secondary schooling, including its engagement of place-making processes, is not conducive to the promotion of pedagogies that beneficially support the learning of this student cohort.