| 4.1. |
Learning about Women Learning |
| |
“[Learning] will give
us strength. People don’t think I am capable of paying
attention to things like current events. Lots of guys think that because we’re
street workers, we have no minds. [Learning] will give me knowledge and
power and I can throw stuff back at them. They look at me differently
because I have knowledge.”
-Participant – response from questionnaire #2 |
| 4.1.1. |
Getting Women in the Door |
Everyone in the project
shared the challenge of participation. As instructors, we
spent a great portion of our preparation time organizing learning activities
that would draw women into the Learning Centre. We learned to develop activities
that
a woman could just "slip in to" while also providing extra challenges for women
who were ready for more. We worried about too much literacy and not enough
literacy. Women also described the factors that competed with their desire
to be in the learning centre: needing to make money, needing to sleep, needing
to
use, and
juggling their boyfriends' agendas, to name a few. We
found that women's participation took many patterns. Many women dropped
in occasionally as they needed help
or came to check out the activities in the
room. Often, women came intensively for a particular period. Other women
came regularly every couple of weeks to keep in touch with us, and get
involved
in the
activities for a night. Gradually over the two years, we began to get a few
women who came weekly. These women became a core group, which made many more
things possible. For instance, the consistent energy of a few women has created
the
WISH Newsletter that many women contribute to and read on a monthly basis. |
