Seeds for Change - A Curriculum Guide for Worker-Centred Literacy

Action Research - Getting more information about the campaign

On the flipchart, generate a list of questions that participants have regarding Water Watch activities in the local community. For example:

Is there a Water Watch Committee in the local community? where? when does it meet?
Which CUPE locals in the area are involved?
Is the local labour council involved?
Is our union involved in any way?
What other groups are involved?
Is local water service being privatized?

Strategize about how to get more information about the campaign. Brainstorm a list of possible sources of information - human and print. The research process will be different for participants who are CUPE members than for those who are members of other unions. It is important that, wherever possible, research tasks be carried out by members of the group. Perhaps a participant has access to the internet and can volunteer to get information and print it out for the group. Perhaps. A participant can phone the CUPE number listed and report back to the group. Role-play phone calls and making research requests. Delegate tasks to be carried out outside of class.

Possible follow-up activities

Depending on the results of the action research, the group may decide to pursue further activities such as:

invite a guest speaker
make a presentation and show the water watch video at a local union meeting
attend a labour council meeting
attend a local Water Watch campaign committee meeting
Write a letter to the editor of the newspaper
Write a letter to government representatives as relevant- municipal, provincial, or federal (Samples of letters from the Water Watch campaign are included for use as models where appropriate.)
check out relevant internet sites for information on water (To begin, see list - what's online? - at the end of this part of the unit)