Literacy education had to be "incorporated in a process of liberation". The approach of the project was revamped; teachers became "animators" who helped workers to analyze their own reality. As a result of the radicalization of the project, relations with the local school board (as well as some of the participants) became strained. After a time, it was decided that even these changes were inadequate, that literacy by itself was a relatively minor problem of the district. It was decided to mount a larger educational program to support the primary struggles of the district, e.g. around issues of food and housing. A more general course on a critical view of the communication process replaced the more narrowly focussed literacy program. The aim of the project became to "spark class consciousness and solidarity". 18

Services to Adults

Another account of an adult basic education project within the context of a working class community, the Services to Adults project of St. Christopher House in the west end of Toronto,19 shows a similar evolution toward a more sophisticated analysis of the political economic context of educational practice. At its inception in 1974, the project was aimed at promoting community development among Portuguese immigrants, particularly women working in low-wage service-sector jobs (e.g. as cleaning, staff in hotels and buildings, and in production jobs in small, labour-intensive firms). The approach taken was that of organizing around single issues, such as enabling a group to inform their union about what they wanted in a new contract, or protesting the firing of a fellow worker. While successful, these episodes tended to last only until the immediate issue was resolved, and did not lead to on-going relationships which built toward long-range action.

Increasingly, the Services to Adults staff came to feel that their approach had to be broadened to allow the community members to recognize the degree to which the various educational, health-related, occupational, political and economic problems they faced were collective ones, and to enable them to collectively analyze and change the social reality which gave rise to them. Furthermore, it became increasingly evident to the staff that the same problems affected other low-income working class groups in the community, including other immigrant groups and anglo Canadian workers, and that they should be included in the programs as well.

The project staff identified illiteracy as a major barrier to collective analysis and action for community members, not just in the narrow sense of inability to read and write, but also in a wider sense of being "blind and deaf" to the reality of the systems that kept them powerless. "It became evident to us that the tool for community development then was education".20 The Services to Adults staff began to provide classes in literacy education and English as a Second Language, as well as meetings and workshops, as vehicles for community development.