FINDING THE PERSONAL INTERVIEW SAMPLE

Choosing the locales

The activities were to be provincial in scope, and there were definite expectations that nonparticipants and withdrawals would be interviewed, as a budget item for learner honoraria at the rate of $20 an hour had been included in the project. It was clearly impossible in the time allotted to cover all regions of the province, thus, selections had to be made. A review of the research literature had shown that factors such as geographic location and the socio-economic composition of the surveyed community influenced results. Compare, for example, Fitzgerald (1984) and Martin (1987), and Beder and Quigley (1990).

Several factors influenced the choice of locations in British Columbia. Personal contacts and networks were important to gain entry to classes and to the target population. As the writer lives in Victoria, various programs were contacted in the Greater Victoria Regional District first. While the visits to these programs were useful in themselves, they also served a field-test function. A new literacy program in the Malaspina College region was included because of the way they had obtained their students. During the public consultations of the Provincial Literacy Advisory Committee in October 1989, a number of written submissions emphasized the great need for literacy training in the downtown eastside of Vancouver. This is primarily a low-income, transient male neighbourhood, and was considered to be a good site for interviews.

It was also decided to include one northern location and one southern interior location. As the travel had to be done in winter, college regions having a cluster of easily accessible campus sites that were also close to airports were chosen. The other selection criterion was that the sites were currently engaged in ABE literacy activities or had had such activities in the past. This focus was required because of the need to interview nonparticipants and withdrawals. The emphasis in the directive of the nonparticipation part of the project was on barriers or deterrents to participation. Obviously, if programs do not exist, or have not existed, the notions of "barriers" to participation and "withdrawal" are academic. The problem becomes one of access and delivery. The college regions chosen were Northwest College (the communities visited were Prince Rupert, Terrace and Kitimat) and Selkirk College (the communities visited were Castlegar, Nelson, Crescent Valley and Trail).