In this article, literacy, which is conceived of as a set of cognitive skills, is juxtaposed with a sociocultural orientation that sees literacy as a set of social practices for the production of meaning. Cognitive, skills-based pedagogies treat literacy as universal, autonomous, and independent of context, whereas sociocultural literacy pedagogies focus on the production of socially situated meanings that are inclusive of diversity. I argue that current policy formulations of literacy in South African curriculum documents, which are based on deficit constructions of teachers and learners and organized around language and the communicative skills, is a pedagogy of despair. I offer a more hopeful, futures-oriented alternative.