In response to the question "Why literacy?", each learner proclaims a need to "get my education," perhaps believing that this will enmesh and embed their literacy practice in the larger society, in a personal way. The connection between literacy and work is not as clear for the learners. They understand that the establishment of a prerequisite level of education for employment is exclusionary and marginalises them from both occupational training and entry-level work positions. The dominant society, in the meantime, sets the barrier of educational levels higher and higher effectively shutting out low-literacy adults from both training and employment. With a provincial unemployment level among the highest in Canada, New Brunswick literacy learners in CASP do not talk much about work. Their focus is on understanding themselves and making sense of the literacy which affects their lives.

The purpose of CASP, from the government's point of view, lies in a school-based and economic definition of literacy. In this perspective, literacy programs follow a curriculum leading to basic literacy and academic upgrading as preparation for entering the work force or advancing to occupational training requiring high school equivalency (MacKeracher, 1993). Other partners, including the community committee members, facilitators, learners, their families, and the local service clubs which provide resources, may interpret CASP's purpose from a community or family perspective. In this perspective, literacy programs, instead of transmitting school practices or training individuals for economic productivity, are expected to improve the individual's and community's "literacy practices" (Auerbach, 1989, p.168) which, in turn, "are the basis for informing and modifying school practices . . . from community to classroom" (p.176).