Clearly, adult basic educators working to preserve and extend educational opportunities for illiterate adults in Canada are confronted by a multi-level challenge. On one level, they must fight the erosion of existing. programs in the current climate of government cutbacks in social expenditures, and at the same time build pressure to expand them. However, this requires action at a second level, within the profession or field. That is, they must reevaluate the theoretical and practical basis of existing approaches in light of the serious criticisms that have emerged from both the political right and the political left. The most important question to be answered here is that of the precise role of illiteracy in the dynamics of class inequality. As we have seen, the three perspectives offer quite divergent views. The answer that they arrive at will in turn have an important bearing at a third level--their political stance vis a vis, the working class and its struggles. For example, will they ally with the working class in a movement for fundamental structural change, as the critical perspective counsels, or will they choose to ally with elites to reform, but preserve, existing institutions, as suggested by the liberal perspective? In the following chapter, we will explore the directions that adult educators, and especially adult basic educators, are taking to respond to these challenges.