Del's sculpture and his accompanying story woke me up, figuratively speaking, and I had not been aware that I was asleep. During our interview, during the group talks and in our casual conversations I felt I was hearing Del tell the same stories over and over. I realized later that I had closed off to his voice. I was listening but I was not hearing. Seeing his sculpture, I was forced to look again and rethink my perceptions of him and his experiences at the Centre. I learned a lot about risks from Del. He helped me see that our risk-taking is related to the whole context of where we are, who we are and where we have come from. I was given a deeper look of what it means for him to be a student at the Centre, which prompted me to observe people in a different way. My heightened sensitivity awakened empathy about the risk-taking that may be involved in certain actions at the Centre: speaking out at a meeting, sitting down to a computer, or walking in the door for the first time.

Participant Responses To Zippers

My original intent in using artifacts was to minimize the use of written text with student participants. I failed to take into account that the use of art is another kind of literacy, where we are reading the artifact. Rene helped me acknowledge the need to take on the role of guide. During the Group Talk, people had been laughing about the possibilities of changing the positions of the sculptural figures. Rene commented that he could see the humour only after I explained the characters in the above Hovering sculpture, "oh I see that now, I see what you mean with the teacher and student".

Also the medium of zippers and haberdashery is gender specific. They are sewing materials, perceived by some as women's materials. During the beginning of our first Group Talk I had placed several zippers (with the wire sewn into them) and some foam bases on the tables where we would be sitting. Steven picked up one of the zippers, played around with it, bending it into shapes. Then he attempted to engage the two other male students, Rene and Richard (pseudonym), in a bantering and comparison of the size and stiffness of their zippers, asking them "How big is your zipper?" and laughing. They didn't respond, and after a few more 24 comments to them, Steven threw his zipper on the table, saying "this is so stupid" and turned his swivel chair away from the table.