“It’s Going to Take a While for This Country to Get Used to Us”: School and Vocational Interactional Histories in the Context of Immigration Policies

Abstract

This chapter describes Ana, whose reluctance to engage in school-related literacy events during her early years of high school changed at the turning point of her story—her meeting Ms. Torres, a bilingual and biliterate Mexican-origin Latina student-teacher in Ana’s 12th-grade humanities class. Ms. Torres’ inspiration led to consistent investment in school-based literacy events in Ana’s last year of high school, followed by further use and development of literacy expertise through vocational practices that drew upon varied multimodal and bilingual/biliterate resources. Her vocational ambitions, however, were overshadowed by legal restrictions due to immigration policies. An overview of Ana’s language and literacy experiences during this study is provided, followed by LIHA analyses of literacy events demonstrating these trends before and after her turning point.