Introduction

This publication emerged from discussions during the International Study Group meetings at the Literacy Research Association (LRA) Conference beginning in December of 2019. We discussed the need to investigate the tensions of policy and the promises of research around literacy implementations in different international contexts. Interest on the topic of international literacy research grew at the meetings, with participation in the international study group that ranged between 20–30 attendees each year. The 2020, 2021, and 2022 study group meetings addressed Indigenous literacies, local expertise, traditions, and perspectives amidst the challenges of global discourses universalizing English-only and/or monoglossic perspectives.

In those meetings, we discovered that some LRA scholars were engaged in innovative research, initiatives, and publications in very different contexts around the globe, especially in multilingual environments. Consequently, in 2021 the study group coordinators solicited abstracts for book chapters on Indigenous, translingual, or cross‑cultural literacies. This book contains the chapters we selected from the abstracts. In this introduction, we expand on the significance of our volume and provide a synthesis of each chapter, highlighting its specific Indigenous, translingual, or cross‑cultural contributions for a better understanding of literacy in a global context.