During the entire research process, women would participate in at least two interviews. They would write in a research journal approximately every second week. The final product of the research would be decided during the research process by the women involved.

Given the federal/provincial nature of funding for adult literacy programming in Canada, the woman-positive activity itself would have to be financially , supported by the program. Only the research could be supported by the National Literacy Secretariat.

We expected ten programs to become involved in the one-year action research phase. Some would engage in short-term activities, others would be involved for the full twelve months. Given the instability of program funding and staffing in the field of adult literacy, we optimistically hoped that eight would still be involved by the end. As it turned out, however, we accepted twelve programs and all of them continued for the eighteen-month process.

1- 2   Research design:
Feminist program-based action research;

When developing the phase two project proposal for the National Literacy Secretariat, I began with CCLOW's expectation that the research would be feminist and, at some level, participatory. Based on the phase one analysis, it would also be located in a variety of programs and include an activity that some of the women in that program identified as woman-positive. The methodological framework for this kind of work can be found in the tradition of qualitative research as it has been adapted and extended by feminist researchers, community activists, and theorists. My own work in the area of the social organization of knowledge, experiential learning theory, feminism, postmodernism, and the politics of difference added its own influence.

The design provided ways for women who participated in the day-to-day research to influence the development of the process. The original proposal provided an overall focus, a timeline, an allocation of resources, and a framework of events (such as workshops and visits). However, the program women had control over what happened in their woman-positive activities. I expected them to use that experience to direct both the process and the content of the workshops and the documentation.

By the end of the project, most women felt that they had as much influence on the research process as they wanted. They strongly recommended that programs be given more opportunity to participate in action research that supports reflection and analysis by both staff and students. They also asked that the documentation for the project contain the theory behind the research design. Knowing that qualitative research is not always recognized as legitimate by government funders, academics, or the media, they wanted to show that this kind of powerful work has its own tradition and validity. They also wanted other programs to understand that the research rests on a foundation. It doesn't just happen.