3-2 The women's words, and the themes emerging from them, clarified the issues and assumptions behind this first phase of the research

The national advisory committee members articulated three assumptions and issues going into this research. First, they believed that learning can be an empowering experience for women. Their experience and their understanding of the experience of other women involved in literacy confirmed this belief.

Second, they also believed that women's lack of access to literacy is directly related to the structure of women's lives. The ways in which our lives are organized, the everyday realities that we face as we try to move through and beyond our experience, have a direct impact on whether and how we participate. This is true not only for women literacy students, but also women literacy workers-although at this point, it was understood that women literacy students would be the primary focus.

And, third, they believed that women's experience of violence-violence in all facets of our lives-is a significant factor in whether and how we participate.

Out of these assumptions came particular issues, particular concerns for future work.

First, we need to do action-oriented research to discover how it is that women become empowered as we learn. What is it that happens for us within that process? Second, in order to better understand the ways in which the structure of women's lives restricts our access to participation, we need to document individual women's stories.

And, third, in order to understand how we can work with the violence in our lives, we need to develop a feminist approach that recognizes the power relations between women and men, and the gendered nature of our participation and lack of participation.

We all recognized the importance of naming our assumptions and our understanding of the issues, at the beginning of the research. We also recognized the importance of not allowing these assumptions and understandings to overpower what women might tell us-or might be willing to tell us-about their lives.

For example, in terms of issues around women and violence, we did not consider it either ethical or realistic to expect a researcher to "parachute" into a community for a week, gain the trust of women, and then leave without taking responsibility for following up on questions she may have raised. It was decided at this point, therefore, that the assumption of violence as a determining factor for women was "presumptive." We would wait to see what women identified during our time together.

As I went through the research process, I also developed assumptions and issues. First, I began to believe that it was crucial to include women literacy workers more centrally in the research focus. It became extraordinarily clear that the conditions of women's lives very much affect not only the participation of literacy workers, but the way in which they are able to understand and work with women students.

Second, one of the conditions that women literacy workers face is the gendered relations between themselves, their co-workers, their administration and their students. As they discussed the possibilities of participating in woman-positive activities, they felt a particular vulnerability about themselves as "women," as "other" than men, as targets for many different levels of violence.

Third, out of this particular understanding came the belief that programs that claim a learner-centred approach do not always demonstrate a woman-positive approach. It is possible to be learner-centred and continue to see "women" as "other" than learner.

This led to a fourth realization that turned into a very strong assumption. Rather than looking at the effect that programs have on women participants, perhaps we need to look at how programs are integrating their awareness of the experience of women.