Translanguaging for Critical Literacies: A Systematic Review of Global PK–12 Research

Abstract

Translanguaging has gained increasing prominence as a theoretical and pedagogical stance recognizing bi/multilingual learners’ full repertoire as legitimate resources for literacy practices. As arguments about its transformative potential continue to grow, it is essential to understand whether and how translanguaging strengthens critical practices in literacy education. Guided by PRISMA protocols, this systematic review examines global PK–12 empirical research that explicitly investigates translanguaging as a pathway for advancing critical literacies, supporting bi/multilingual learners in reading and (re)writing both the words and the world(s). Findings demonstrate translanguaging's value as a critical pedagogical framework, especially when integrated with broader critical theories, in guiding literacy education. We employed four metaphors—Target, Window, Map, and Soil—to illustrate how translanguaging disrupts linguistic hierarchies, opens spaces for broader social inquiry, reorients the pathways and structures of literacy education, and cultivates nurturing learning environments. At the same time, the review cautions against reductive celebrations of translanguaging as universally liberatory, emphasizing that its transformative potential becomes visible only when educators and researchers actively engage its political and decolonial commitments. The review concludes by identifying gaps in the literature and calls for future research that is contextually grounded, theoretically generative, and methodologically diverse in exploring translanguaging's critical affordances in literacy education.