1.1 Goals for the research project
Objectives for the first, exploratory stage

The original proposal outlined goals for both the first, exploratory stage and the second, action research stage:

• to examine how gender and the power balance of the male/female relationship affect women's access to, and experience of, literacy programs and how it affects the impact of literacy programs on women,

• to determine how literacy programs and literacy practice might be changed to better respond to the reality of the lives of adult women learners, and

• to share this information with women literacy students and workers, through print materials and in workshops, to foster the development of relevant, appropriate, and accessible literacy learning opportunities for women.

The first, exploratory phase of the research had the following objectives:

• to talk with women literacy students and workers who are currently involved in literacy programs,

• to develop key questions out of the "data" of the women's stories, and

• to develop a research design to investigate these questions further using an action research model.