[Here Karen tells the story about discovering the word "dyke" used by someone in reference to this research and to her involvement in it. In a short story, DIS/COVER, she worked with the many levels of her response - and the consequences of that response for her work at the Centre and her life in the community. As part of the research process, Karen shared that story with Joy Suluk. After they had two difficult but open and respectful conversations Karen decided not to include that story as documentation of this research. We have removed direct references to the incident from this journal.

A description of what happened for Karen and her class during the time of the research is included in The power of woman-positive literacy work. Some of the conversation between Karen and Joy is recorded there.]

I left a note for Joy saying we should get together and talk.

February 3, 1992 (daytime)

I talked with Joy on the phone. She had the names of five women who said they'd come. All but one had been in the program before. One of them has come to the program every year since it started.

When I looked over the list of names I realized that each of the returning learners was either working at least part-time or in programs at the Learning Centre. Was this "progress" in their lives? Was it at least in part attributable to the Women's Upgrading Program and Learning Centre? How the heck will we ever know?

February 3, 1992 (evening)

I arrived at class a little after 7:00 because my baby-sitter was late! The women were sitting at or near the computers when I walked in. A tide of happiness swelled up in me.

I suggested we put on the coffee and sit around the kitchen table. We talked for about forty-five minutes about what we wanted to do in the program. I'm used to long silences when finding out from learners what they see themselves doing here. Well, it was clear that was not to be the case tonight - I had to keep asking them to speak one at a time! They had lots of ideas about what they wanted to do. Much of it we'd done previous years, but there were a couple of new suggestions:

• We'll visit organizations and workplaces instead of inviting them to come to the class. We figured most of us would be able to do it once a week during the day. Those who are baby-sitting could bring the child with them. We'd try to plan around Debbie's four-hour-a-day work schedule and figured Gloria might be able to get out of her Job Entry program to make the visits with us. Some places to go: Northern Store, Drug and Alcohol Centre, library, post office, churches, RCMP, by-law officers, Social Services, Renewable Resources.