In-Sites Studies
in Workforce
Literacy

In-Sites is a new Canadian research project which studies literacy and literacy learning at work. This two and a half year project is supported by a grant from the National Literacy Secretariat, Human Resources Development Canada and housed at Ryerson Polytechnic University. In-Sites is the first large-scale Canadian ethnographic study in workforce literacy.

The name is a pun, of course, because ethnographic research seeks understanding and, yes, insights into social practices. This project, then, is different from research work aimed at mapping individual skills or understanding workforce literacy as a skill issue. In-Sites’ five researchers want to consider workforce literacy as a complex social practice. Workplaces definitely have cultures. Ethnographic research casts light on aspects of culture, especially those that are taken for granted, or are just part of how things work.

Sample questions for the five inter-related In-Sites studies include:

How do stakeholders define and act on literacy learning needs in their work-places?

How does literacy learning become established as part of the culture of a workplace?

Research will take place at 5 work sites, and, at the time of writing, there are workplaces under consideration in manufacturing, grocery production, health care, hospitality and textiles. The five inter-related studies of these different work sites will bridge practitioners’ work and theories of literacy and learning.

Technology makes collaboration across Canada easier today than it has ever been before. The five practicing educators undertaking In-Sites research and their academic consultant are supplementing group meetings with frequent Internet and telephone contact.

The field studies at work sites are taking place now and continuing through next year. The written manuscript will take most of the following year. Meanwhile, In-Sites researchers plan to introduce the project and ethnography to other practitioners through workshops and professional development opportunities.

What is the significance of In-Sites? In general, In-Sites stands to enrich and broaden the scope of the workplace literacy field in Canada. It will benefit the field by providing a more complex integrated framework for thinking about workplace literacy. How? By focussing a finely-grained analysis on the lived experience of literacy within the social context at the workplace. In-Sites research will create new ways in which we look at the place of literacy and learning within the context of work.

Researchers:
Mary Ellen Belfiore Toronto, Ontario
Tracy A. Defoe
Vancouver, British Columbia
Sue Folinsbee
Toronto, Ontario
Virginia Sauvé
Edmonton, Alberta

Consultant:
Nancy Jackson
McGill University
Montreal, Quebec

Principal Investigator and Researcher:
Judy Hunter
Language Centre, English Dept
Ryerson Polytechnic University
350 Victoria St.
Toronto, ON M5B 2K3
Fax (416) 979-5110
Email: juhunter@acs.ryerson.ca
Phone: (416) 979-5000, ext. 6134

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