Decision making at the Centre occurs within a range of academic and vernacular literacy practices that allows students to move from the known to unknown, first making choices and decisions that are familiar. Vernacular literacy practices are those that are common and a part of students' daily lives, such as finding a recipe, choosing a birthday card or reading instructions. At the Centre, students can decide to help plan and make lunch that week, to make a card for a family member, or to read a passage from the Student Handbook. Students have opportunity to gauge and determine their own decisions and risk-taking. They can make choices to work at their literacy learning through a range of familiar and unfamiliar practices, within a group or on their own. This range of choice is a key component of the instructional program and of building relationships of trust and safety within the Centre. The range of choices is possible through the autonomy afforded the Centre through their site-based management, the second element within a facilitative power system.

Site-based Management & Autonomy

Site-based management implies participative management. Kate and Christina wanted to have their own site in order to have more participative management within their literacy program and more autonomy within the classroom. When they moved the fundamental English and Math classes to their storefront location, the teachers anticipated changes - more independence and autonomy for both students and themselves as teachers. This happened both in concrete terms and in psychological terms, changes from within and without.

The move from classes at the College campus to a storefront location, in September 1999, increased the sense of autonomy at all three levels - student, teacher and the Centre itself. Having their own space means having their own resources and different access to resources, thus resulting in increased freedom and independence for students. They have their own photocopy machine and eleven computers. At the college, students had to ask permission or pay for access to a telephone and photocopier, and they had scheduled times to use the one computer lab on the college campus. The Centre has two telephone lines, one for the students and one for the teachers. The student phone number is the one on is on the Centre's brochure and is a way for the general public to contact the Centre directly. The teacher line is on a message machine and used mainly by the teachers.