Two things happened for us during this time. The first was that, while the discussion and writing was interesting, it was not purposefully feminist. Our students, by this time all women, were not critically questioning the conditions of their lives that result from the fact that they are women. The second was that we saw that almost any theme could incorporate an approach that was positive to women by providing an opportunity and the encouragement for their voices to be heard. So while a couple of the themes were not of particular interest to us, they became more interesting when the woman-positive aspect was added. Realizing that any theme could involve a woman-positive perspective was one of the revelations that began our discomfort.

If any topic could incorporate a woman-positive approach and if we thought of ourselves as feminists, why did introducing this approach into a literacy writing group seem like such an innovative, challenging idea in the first place?

Support and permission to reflect

As mentioned earlier, the very act of defining the class as one that would be positive for women brought a new dimension, at least in theory, to our teaching and this was exciting. Similarly, being part of a nation-wide research project which had as its focus the exploration of what it means to be woman-positive gave us permission to examine the role our feminism plays in our teaching practice. Now that the project is over, as we reflect back over the myriad experiences this research afforded us, the one that stands out most strongly, for both of us, is the magical time we spent together talking about the work we love. Rarely do teachers have the luxury of time to engage in this type of reflective activity. For this research, however, participants (two from each of twelve programs) were paid to do just that for one half day each week. Our initial enthusiasm and interest came from these sources.

JOURNAL ENTRY - MARY ANN ------------ MAY 6,1992

Working with Paula and CCLOW has given me the time and opportunity to explore these questions and to receive the support I have needed. At one of the group sessions during the second national workshop for the project we were talking about support. I said I got my greatest support from Paula.

She said that she also felt a lot of support by being part of the CCLOW project. That really surprised me because I didn't really think of the larger group in such personal terms.

Since then I've been thinking a good deal about where my support comes from. I think Paula is right. Without CCLOW I wouldn't have examined my classroom practice so carefully in terms of how my practice influences women in my classes.