Gaining confidence through
woman-positive literacy research

Nicole Jessop
Workers' Education for Skills Training (WEST)
Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, Regina, SK

I don't particularly like to write, but I like to think and talk. When I was trying to work out how to document my experience in the CCLOW research, Betty-Ann Lloyd suggested we work on the two interviews I had with her. This reflection contains pieces of our discussions.

Getting started

In 1991 I was working at a large hotel in Regina. I have worked there as a maid for eight years, ever since I was 15 years old. During that time, I've been involved a lot with my union, RWDSU (Retail, Wholesale, Department Store Union), as a shop steward and as a course leader in the WEST literacy program.

The WEST program coordinator contacted me in October to say that the Canadian Congress for Learning Opportunities for Women (CCLOW) was looking for women to do research on literacy. She had given them my name and wanted to know if I'd be interested. If I was, I would have to go to the first national workshop in Winnipeg, in November. I was pretty unsure at first. I had my doubts about it because I'm not a very outspoken person. I don't get along well in groups. So I didn't know if I wanted to go somewhere where I knew absolutely nobody.

The only time I'd been away from home before was when I trained for the WEST program and that was only forty-five minutes away. I decided I might be able to go if I just refused to think about the actual trip. I knew as soon as I sat back and thought that I was going off with a bunch of women from all over Canada that I've never met before - I knew I would panic. So I purposely didn't think about it until I had to pack.

When I found out that Debbie Heagy from WEST in Saskatoon was also going to the workshop, it helped a lot. We had done our course leader training together and I felt reassured that there would be at least one face I recognized!

I remember my first ideas about what it might mean to do research. In my mind we were going to go to the workshop and get lists of research questions to ask people. That's the only research I've ever had contact with so that's what I figured was going to happen. When we ended up kind of doing our own research, I was a little amazed.