Background

1-1 Exploratory research
Discovering the strength of our voices

For the last fifteen years, the Canadian Congress for Learning Opportunities for Women (CCLOW) has advocated for adult literacy policies, programs, practice, and materials that meet the needs of women in the context of their communities and their everyday lives. Working on its own and in coalition with other organizations, the national organization and its networks have represented the particular concerns of adult women students and staff.

As a national, voluntary, feminist organization, CCLOW has sponsored several research studies and reports about women's experience with adult literacy and basic education programs. (For example, DeCoito, 1984; MacKeracher, n.d.; Wismer, 1988) Its Learning Resource Centre responds to requests for information on women and literacy from across Canada. Its 1989 brochure, "Let's talk about women and literacy," identifies some of the barriers which block women's participation in literacy programs and proposes ways in which literacy programs can be made more accessible to women. Telling our stories our way (1990) provides a guide to good Canadian materials for women learning to read.

With this research project, CCLOW continued its work with women and literacy. In January 1990, eight women from across Canada spoke by teleconference with Aisla Thomson,