Observation

My observations included what I saw and heard at the Centre; I also collected documents and records, such as the Centre brochure, Student Handbook, weekly Inhale Room schedules, minutes from the Reading and Writing Centre Evaluation meeting, and posters and notices. During my first month of official fieldwork, I chose to type my daily field notes directly on to one of the eleven computers in the Exhale Room.

Since there are more computer terminals than seats at tables, I could be less obtrusive and disruptive sitting at a computer along the wall than at a table in the middle of the room, and felt I blended in more with the students and events of the Exhale Room. I felt a need to interact and connect with people at the Centre. The participant observer role allows the researcher "to get infinitely closer to the lived experiences of the participants than does straight observation" (Prus, 1994:21). So when I attended classes in the Inhale Room, I would participate with the students in the class activities and contribute during the rounds of discussion or reading aloud. This allowed me to experience on a firsthand basis some aspects of the role of students.

Student & Teacher Interviews

I interviewed ten students over the first three months of fieldwork. One student I interviewed left the Centre to take classes at the College, so I focused on the remaining nine students, five women and four men who were all between the ages of 21 and 56 years. Four of the students are First Nations, five are white, as are both the female teachers. During the first two weeks of fieldwork, I individually approached all the students attending the Centre and the two teachers with the consent form and we went over all the items together. During this process, all participants were informed of the choice to have their own name or a pseudonym used. One of the participants opted to use a pseudonym and chose the name she wanted me to use. After completing this thesis, I assigned pseudonyms to the three students that I was unable to contact, and used the real names of the other four. The real names of all other people and places are used throughout this thesis.