A Third Site: The Adult Education Profession The third site is at the level of the adult education profession. D'Arcy Martin and Rick Williams say: Within the profession, adult basic educators have a unique role and responsibility in the re-education of all adult educators and the radical realignment of the whole profession. 33 Action at this level has taken various forms. One is the radical critique of literacy and basic education materials used in existing programs. The Literacy Working Group of St. Christopher House in Toronto carried this out with respect to certain materials in common use. The report of their findings, which they made available to many members of the ABE profession, pointed out pervasive sexual bias, middle class world views and a bias for American values and customs in the materials. 34 Another Toronto group, the ESL Core Group, went on to actually produce alternative materials for use in English language classes for immigrant workers. They are designed to stimulate critical dialogue and an action orientation around problems faced by these workers, and have subsequently been put to use in various programs. 35 Another example of work within the profession is the activities of adherents of the critical perspective in organizations promoting the development and support of literacy opportunities in Canada. The nation-wide Movement for Canadian Literacy is one organization which, among other functions, acts as an information and lobby group in relation to governments. It has benefitted from the participation of a number of adult basic educators with a critical orientation. A Fourth Site: Within the Capitalist State Action at a fourth site, at the level of administration, policy formation and program development with regard-to adult basic education within the capitalist state--federal, provincial and municipal--is extremely significant with regard to the movement to develop greater government sponsorship of these programs and to create and protect "free space" for adult basic educators attempting to develop and conduct programs based on the critical perspective. At present in Canada, one could probably point to only a handful of individuals influenced by the critical perspective employed by the state in such positions, but their potential importance is far out of proportion to their numbers in their ability to link with, and provide strategic support for, the struggles of professional, citizen, labour and other groups working to extend literacy and ABE opportunities. A Fifth Site: One's Own Conscientization All adult basic educators who adhere to the critical perspective are obliged by the nature of their commitment to continually engage in a personal process of conscientization. A particularly important problem is that while many adult basic educators are genuinely concerned about the Inadequacy of conventional ABE practice and strive to develop a liberatory orientation, their perceptions and approaches to the problem are limited and colored by their own relatively privileged social class position. Freire believes that adult educators must come to terms with this influence if they are to forge a liberatory practice. In one passage, he discusses his experience in this regard in Guinea-Bissau. It can be taken to apply in a general sense to Canada as well (in spite of obvious differences in context):