The Documentation Group

This group began with each woman talking about her first response to the wide variety of documentation - descriptions, journal writing, articles, stories, booklets, policy work, and personal narratives. They talked about being absorbed, amazed, and overwhelmed by the quantity and quality of the work. They mentioned the many strong voices, the many similarities and differences, the many connections, and the gaps.

Several women said the material seemed very concrete, readable, and personal- reflecting a wide range of emotions and feelings. Each program seemed to emphasize a different aspect of their work so that we have a wonderful composite picture of the project. Others expressed their concern that we would have difficulty choosing the strongest image, in order for the final product to have the impact it deserves.

Most of the women believed that, despite the diversity, there were common threads that should be pulled out and made evident in the recommendations. "The recommendations seem to jump off the page," one woman said. Another said what is missing has to somehow make its way into the documentation as well. For example, some women believed the excellent literacy work accomplished during the project seemed invisible in many of the final products.

Women hoped that information from the interview transcripts and journals, from the less public documentation, might also be included in the final product. These materials have a richness that is not always evident when women have distilled their experiences for public consumption. "We have to show the process of change and development," one woman said. "These are the positive consequences of giving literacy workers the time and resources to get together and share their experiences."

By participating in this project many women have begun to look more closely at the devaluation of literacy work in particular and social justice work in general. Because of the support of other women, they have been able to express some of their feelings of bitterness and despair. Isolation continues to be one of the major problems for so many women - isolation and the devaluation of literacy work by those who have the power to change things.

The women in this group then decided to break into pairs or work on their own. They each focused on something that had caught their attention in terms of the documentation. They would spend the rest of the afternoon pulling together their different ideas. In the process, they highlighted how women with different interests and different perspectives find very different things in the same material.