Doris was a pivotal student in the class. She was called on by the teachers to take over if the teacher had to leave. Other students looked to her when a student representative position was announced for nominations. Not only is she the oldest, at fifty, but she is also the clearest thinker with respect to resistance. Both teachers encouraged her in her resistance behaviours. She described feeling better about herself at the end of the semester than at the beginning. "Yeah, there's a few things that's real different. I begin to fix myself up. Even to get up in the morning and look in the mirror and tell myself that I'm fine. Understanding math is one more and being a little bit more patient." School seemed to be satisfying her desire for more agency without undermining her identity.

All of the students in the regular attender group displayed more than one form of resistance behaviour. None displayed signs of withdrawal resistance. Other than these two commonalties they are a varied group: six of the students are Euro-Canadian and one is First Nations; four are women and three are men; and four are over forty and three are under forty. This variation heightens the likelihood of a connection between regular attendance and the number and variety resistance behaviour (excluding the withdrawal kind).

Teacher Interventions and Attitudes

The two teachers in this ABE classroom maintained educational attitudes and demonstrated instructional interventions that appeared to be student centred and progressive about both attendance and resistance. These attitudes and interventions affected the general classroom environment, including attendance and resistance, as well as encouraging respect for the identities of everyone in the class. I present a selection of their observed, or discussed, attitudes and interventions.