Over the two years, women greatly increased their capacity to reflect as a group and not just as individuals. However, we continued to struggle with asserting the research as a priority discussion. Framed as "research", many discussions were a turn off to women. However, if the reflections were designed as activities, women were much more interested in the process. For instance, when we all decided to create a poster of our first year’s work for the Portraits of Literacy Research Conference, women were excited about participating. We learned to create opportunities for reflection in an informal as well as formal way. We also wrote down the many spontaneous conversations we had with women about learning.

There were several practices that we systematically used to document the experiences of the two-year research period.

1. Sign In Sheets
   During each of the three evenings the WISH Learning Centre is open, we have a sign-in sheet for women to sign or at least mark an "x" or use their street name. We used this method to describe the quantitative aspect of women's participation at the Learning Centre. Although not foolproof (some women did not sign in, some women use more than one name), the sign-in sheets tracked individual attendance.
   
   

2. Instructor Logs
   Each instructor/facilitator also wrote a report after each evening, noting the activities, responses, well being of women, and issues. These reports were posted on an electronic conferencing system allowing the instructors to share information and store it for future analysis. These reports allowed us to look back in detail on the development of the Learning Centre and the development of individual women. We have also kept a record of what "flopped" and our speculations about why a certain activity failed to engage women.