D'Arcy Martin suggests that we must supplement Freire's writings in this respect if we are to make use of them:

It is suggested here that a more complex approach to analysis of social groupings is required if Freire's dialectic of consciousness/society is to be applied consistently in a revolutionary manner. This analysis would distinguish social classes, and indicate fractions within each class which differ in consciousness and social role.15

Linda Harasim argues that in the absence of this kind of clarity--i.e. of the relation of the learner's consciousness to the fundamental political economic basis of the society, and the relation of the learner's consciousness to his or her class position--the application of the Freirian literacy method can become ad hoc and subject to the personal biases of the educator. Under these circumstances, it will not constitute a true experience of conscientization.16

Political Economy Analysis

We may illustrate the need for an increasingly sophisticated class analysis on the part of adherents of the critical perspective, and the progress that has been made in Canada in this regard, through closer examination of two accounts of educational projects which we encountered in an earlier chapter. These are the "Crossroads" project in Montreal and the St. Christopher House Services to Adults project.

Crossroads

In a 1975 article, 17 Serge Wagner described the "Crossroads" community education project, which had been in operation in the working class Point St. Charles district in Montreal since 1967. It was initiated when a committee of illiterate adults left the night classes on literacy conducted by the local school board in order to organize courses better suited to their needs. The team of educators chosen to conduct the program found that the materials used in conventional adult literacy programs were unsuitable: "tracts to train and domesticate the working class...to fit into the capitalist system". They went on to develop their own materials. However, after a time, the team found that much more than the materials had to be changed; the whole conventional "adaptation" approach which they had initially adopted was found lacking. Even though adults were being helped to learn to read and write, they were becoming more dependent on the instructors (the "experts") and were not experiencing individual or collective mobility. The team was forced to recognize that illiteracy had to be viewed in relation to poverty and exploitation, and that the source of the difficulties of the adults lay in the economic structures that for many years had made that district a source of cheap labour for the local economy. They came to realize that if their project was to function in support of the collective advancement of the people of the district, it had to respond to this reality.