This presentation is based on a research project (Adolescent Literacy, Identity and School, ALIAS) which is investigating the impact of low levels of literacy on identity constructions of first year students in post-primary school. The kernel of the project is the design, implementation and evaluation of a literacy intervention for and with first year students and their teachers. Learners as literacy curriculum designers is a central tenet of the initiative. Our aim is to broaden rather than narrow learners’ school experience and to develop genuinely student-centred literacy learning. Among the theoretical and empirical issues being explored in the project are: the figured world of school success and failure with specific focus on literacy; the socially and culturally constructed positional identities of students through school and literacy; how students with low literacy levels are being scripted and positioned by the school and by themselves, and the identity positions that are available and denied as a consequence of this positioning. Empirically the work is based in four post-primary schools in Ireland and theoretically we draw on Holland et al’s ‘figured worlds’ (1998), Gonzalez and Moll’s ‘funds of knowledge’ (2005) Hicks’ ‘hybrid pedagogical spaces’ (2001) and Wolff-Michael Roth’s ‘curriculum-in-the-making’ (2014) to address the themes of the study. This presentation by Kevin Cahill and Dan O’Sullivan offers preliminary insights and findings about the process of literacy curriculum design and cultural bridging when multiple actors and agendas are involved.