This article reports on findings from a school‐based action research project with aboriginal adolescent students attending an alternative school in Canada. As a Freirean response to these marginalized students' school failures, the researcher engaged students in a critical multiliteracies approach to language and literacy learning. Based on participant observation, video recordings, teacher journals, and field notes, key findings from this study indicated that (a) students were more likely to engage in school literacy projects when rules about how to speak in school and what topics could be discussed in school were suspended, (b) students' literacy levels benefited from a critical multiliteracies project that asked to them to draw on their own cultural funds of knowledge and use and develop the computer technologies skills they were interested in, and (c) students were more likely to engage in critical discussion of social issues when they chose the topic for study.

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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how digital technologies were introduced in a collaborative literacy intervention to address a population long underserved by traditional schools: the Aboriginals of Canada.Design/methodology/approachSituated within a critical ethnographic project, this paper examines how digital technologies were introduced. The questions focused on: how can critical multiliteracies be used to engage students, in both academic and digital literacies development? In what ways does participation in multimodal media production provide evidence of teachers and students' critical literacy development?FindingsDigital literacies as a part of multiliteracies were developed in teaching contexts where learning is challenged by many factors.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper reports on the achievement and the struggles that remain. Implications for further research and teacher education are also drawn from the experience of implementing a broader definition of literacy in academic settings with Aboriginal students of Canada.Originality/valueThe inclusion of a digital curriculum provides possibilities for greater academic success for marginalized students in both mainstream and alternative schools.

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