Fran thought that participation in the classroom and to some extent the employment preparation program led her students to see themselves only as students. They were engaged in activities that helped them to identify themselves as adult students who attended school, not necessarily as adults who were preparing for employment.

I would say that, for many of the students, the class is a primary activity for them and, therefore, a primary way that they identify themselves. Having said that, I also see that most of the students certainly hope that the coffee shop training, and eventual placement, is their route to some type of employment eventually.

The higher level students, Marion, Hannah, and Nadine, also identified themselves as students, but this identity had a less dominant role in their lives. Their participation in the classroom and the program was seen as an opportunity to gain knowledge, apply this knowledge, and move on. It was not a primary activity as Fran described. Suzanne explained the difference:

It doesn't have to be an end itself. It's a stepping–stone. For now it's good for them, for their family situation, for where they are at. For some of them it's employment related; they would like a job out of this and that's their goal. But for many of the people in my class, I know it isn't [the end]. They'll do other things after that.

Suzanne was referring to their desire to continue their education and possibly enter a credit program or achieve a recognized credential in an educational setting.

Another way to look at participation in the classroom is to determine whether or not the students are engaged in a productive activity. In other words, do the literacy activities of the classroom lead to a purposeful and meaningful product? And, how do the students know when they've achieved that end? Nadine was able to describe the difference between the activities she did in the classroom and those she did outside the classroom. The classroom was the setting where she learned about literacy, and where she gained confidence. But it was outside the classroom that she engaged in meaningful and productive literacy activities. She recalled being in the general literacy program, learning the skills that she needed to read. But the key to her learning, she explained, actually occurred outside the classroom. "You have to learn to help yourself too. You got to learn at school, then you have to [go] home to read or you'll never learn. You have to learn to help yourself."