Group Talks

I facilitated two group discussions with student participants near the end of data collection, and both were tape-recorded and transcribed. Freire's term "cultural circle" best describes my role and my visions for these groups because "[a] cultural circle is a live and 16 creative dialogue in which every one knows some things and does not know others, in which all seek together to know more" (Freire in Wallerstein, 1987:39). I wanted to share my reflections and preliminary data analysis with the student participants. As well, I was interested in having participants hear one another's responses and perceptions of the research and the topics brought up in the interviews.

Data collection and fieldwork also included meeting college administrators, talking with substitute teachers, new students and visitors. I joined students and teachers on the Centre's field trips within the community and participated in online discussions that Kate and Christina were involved in with other literacy practitioners.

Informed Consent

Informed consent in this study included issues of literacy levels of participants, confidentiality, ongoing communication and relationship. In qualitative research, informed consent is not a single step procedure that simply involves the signing of a form, as with the psychological/medical model, rather, informed consent is an ongoing process and very much a part of the developing relationship with participants.

For this research study, a formal letter of consent was created to satisfy the requirements of the ethics committees. I agree with Niks (2000) that "[m]ore than having people sign the letter, I think we should think of this as one more event among the many in our research project where we are interacting with research participants and making sure they know what the project is about" (April 25, electronic mailing list). The consent form was written in accessible plain language to make it possible for participants to understand the document they were signing. This was done after consultation with Kate Nonesuch. Using plain language, taking time with each participant to discuss the study, and listening to questions and concerns helped set a tone that decreased possible intimidation about the use of a written document.

Even so, some students initially showed great reluctance to approach the 3½-page green document that I set down on the table before us. After they followed my reading of the consent form for awhile, most would eventually choose to read it as well, along with me, taking turns at paragraphs or sentences. Some words, such as "thesis, interview, authority", caused pauses in their reading. Steven, a student I had approached, looked at the consent form with me, following what I was saying and reading, then read a couple sentences on his own, saying excitedly:

Hey I read that - you know I was following what you're saying so I kind of knew that would be the word [the word was "question"] (FN 03/ 5/01).