Most of the women, despite admitted reading and writing difficulties said they read to their children. They saw the importance of education for their own children. If they don't recognize words when reading out loud, they invent them. Writing skills were described as "so-so", and "poor". "A letter from me says -'Hi. How are you? It snowed. Bye.'," said one woman.

Summary

The majority of these women were in the position of being sole support parents. They were more job-oriented than education-oriented. Two of them felt their ages (51 years and 37 years) were factors against them in the job market. Because most of the group were from small centres, they were up against restricted job openings. They were also up against less accessible or suitable course offerings. The smaller demand for certain courses is a determinant in which centre actually offers a particular course. If it is in a neighbouring town, transportation and day-care then become problems for this group. Yet, few of the women are willing to move. Only the older woman said she would be prepared to do this if she could get work. The others wanted to be close to friends and family and thought the smaller centres were preferable to “the big city”. Life circumstances or situational barriers appeared to be the major reasons for nonparticipation among these women, but some of them could be resisters as well.

THE SAMPLE

This survey came about through a suggestion from the ABE Department of Camosun College, as an alternative method of reaching nonparticipants, when classroom visits had yielded only two suggestions for interviewees in this category. This population of nonregistrants had been motivated in some way or by someone to go as far as writing the placement tests at Camosun College, but then not going the next step of actually registering. Thus, this group was hovering on the brink of participation but had not taken the plunge into ABE. It was felt that some useful insights might be gained for both the college and the project if this population could be interviewed.

There were 90 names listed in the target population - those who had placed at BASD or ABE Introductory English between September 1, 1988 to August 31, 1989 and had not registered at the College by January 1990 according to the college computers. Of these people, 68 had taken the test in 1989 and 22 in 1988. Of the 90 names, 19 became the survey sample. Table 10 shows how the number was reduced.