Abstract

This article is an ethnographic case study of a community literacy project that teaches immigrants to the U.S. how to get their driver's licenses.The article shows how perceptions of literacy change when project participants encounter the "rules of the road"-unspoken rules that are highly social, deeply embodied, and usually pitched by the powerful as clear, neutral, and necessary for survival.Based on qualitative analysis of written materials and interviews gathered during the project, we demonstrate how the community project activated analogic thinking about literacy.That is, realizing that driving rules are negotiable leads learners to realize that literacy rules are negotiable, too.