One of the two key assumptions underlying their learner-run vision is that all people, thus all students, have the right to self-development and have potential to exercise and use power. There is an expectation of the teachers that students at the Centre will move towards more student agency and self-determination. Opportunities for decision-making and choices are integrated within the whole program, ranging from a new student choosing the colour of their file folder to group decisions about spending the Student Fund. During both individual and group interactions with students, the teachers direct students' attention to the fact that they have choices and are making decisions. Christina even jokingly engaged a student in a brief conversation about deciding not to decide. The other key assumption of the teachers' learner-run vision is the value and the use of the group in the process of increasing student agency and self-determination. Teachers hold the expectation that students will work at relating and communicating with one another and to participate in group activities and classes.

It is important to remember that this study is based on a moment of time in the life of the Centre. My description and analysis are grounded in my five months of fieldwork and data collection during early 2001. I have remained in close contact since that time with a keen interest in the continuing evolution and changes occurring at the Centre. My visits and ongoing communication with the teachers and some students assure me that the essence and philosophy of their learner-run vision is sustained through the latest developments at the Reading and Writing Centre. During their five-year anniversary celebration in April 2004 I listened to the speakers that included present and former students and College administrators, and I felt a strong confirmation of the Centre's continuing efficacy and its value as an exemplary educative environment

Facilitative Power System

I suggest that the Reading and Writing Centre has evolved a facilitative power system through the teachers' consciousness of group and in their work towards the learner-run goal. As introduced in the literature chapter, the four main components of a facilitative power system that I will look at are: decentralized decision-making, site-based management, teacher autonomy, and a unique curriculum. Whereas Dunlap & Goldman's research looks at relationships between teachers and administrators, this study focusses on relationships amongst students and teachers. This study looks at both teacher and student autonomy and at the autonomy of the Centre itself. In a facilitative power system, site-based management implies the decentralization of decisionmaking from the district to the building level. In the case of the Reading and Writing Centre, the decentralization is from their local university-college campus level to their storefront building level, the Centre itself. As well, I am suggesting there is decentralization at their storefront location, in the Centre's move to shift more decision-making from the teachers to the students.