Because of their shared educational philosophy, Mary Ann and Paula had already talked about team teaching a literacy-level writing group. They wanted to encourage students to improve their writing skills beyond the functional limitations normally imposed upon literacy students. After reading the report of the first phase, they decided that bringing a woman-positive approach to that writing group would be challenging to them as instructors and of interest to the students.

The woman-positive activity

Initially, Paula and Mary Ann defined "woman-positive" as intellectually acknowledging that women have something unique to say, that this uniqueness needs to be given a place to develop and be expressed, that it needs to be validated, and that it is not normally addressed in literacy programs.

After talking with their administrator, the chair of the College Foundations Division at CNC, they undertook the writing group as part of the CCLOW research. The group met once a week for two hours and was free. It was not part of the regular, articulated curriculum at CNC.

The writing group was initially advertised through existing literacy programs, including English as a Second Language, with students being encouraged to bring mends or family not currently involved in any upgrading program. The participants of the course turned out to be mostly English as a Second Language students and mostly women.

Paula and Mary Ann explored their own understanding and practice of facilitating woman-positive activities as they worked with a mixed group of women and men in a class that was not specifically concerned with women's issues. They also looked at their work in a second section that had been advertised and discussed as a writing group that would also look at women's issues.

They planned to present their research through writing and publishing a journal article as well as offering a workshop at a conference for women in post-secondary education.

This is what happened

During the course of the two writing groups, Paula and Mary Ann were able to recognize the substantial literacy gains made by their students. They had some concern, however, about the quality and quantity of woman-positive activities they were able to introduce into the classroom.

Paula and Mary Ann began to explore, in their journals, why they found it so difficult to identify and incorporate woman-positive activities in the classroom. During this exploration, the focus of their research shifted from the work of the students to the work of the teachers, themselves. They made this shift as a result of having the opportunity to reflect together on their classroom practice as feminist literacy workers.