A facilitative power system is also characterized by a curriculum that is uniquely responsive to the people it serves. Dunlop & Goldman point out that, in a facilitative power system, differences in curricular strategies are permitted and encouraged because there is an attempt to allow for specific characteristics of students, teachers and the community in which the school is located. This study looks at some of the program differences and changes that students and teachers experienced after they moved classes from within the college campus to their storefront location.

In the following discussion about decision making, I include descriptions of the choices students have at the Centre and the ensuing challenges of those choices. This is followed by a brief discussion about how the decision-making process happens (through diffusion) and where it happens (student orientation and Monday meetings). Site-based management and the ensuing autonomy are the next two aspects of facilitative power that are explored, followed by the Centre's unique curriculum.

Decision Making

Having choices and making decisions are two prominent themes that emerged from this study. Power is exercised through the process of making decisions. For students at the Centre, making decisions is related to seeing oneself as a decision-maker, as a person with the right to make decisions and with the capability to make decisions. The teachers work with students to increase awareness about informed decision-making, which is having an awareness of the choices available and the consequences of those choices.

Many times during interviews, group talks and conversations, the students brought up the availability of choices at the Centre. They shared their feelings about being free to choose to attend classes or work on their own, to pick their own book to read, to talk in a group, or to choose to pass. They contrasted having these choices with their previous experiences of schooling. Students' freedom to choose stems from the instructional program at the Centre. Their program is a sophisticated approach based on the teachers' philosophy and political stance and includes both teacher-instructed group classes and self-directed individual work in the Inhale Room and Exhale Room respectively. The two rooms are also used for planning and executing the many non-instructional projects and activities that go on at the Centre. This combination of teacher-centred and learner-centred approaches signifies a learning-centred environment that allows for student choice. The teachers make an ongoing concerted effort to heighten student 60 awareness of the choices and opportunities available at the Centre and to acknowledge students' decision-making process.