A second limitation to student autonomy is the lack of infrastructure. There is no system in place for students to truly run the Centre. I commented to Kate that much of the Monday meeting agenda comes from the teachers.

Well I'm kind of stuck. I mean, I think that right now we are in a stuck place because we don't have any structure. [pause] But I think that it's true, huge portions of the agenda are generated by teachers. And partly [pause] so I think that might always be that way, it's partly because the structure is the way it is. Anything that comes from the college comes through us (KaI 05/3/01).

Without an infrastructure that helps to define the communication between the College and the Centre, there is no system of communication and power sharing from the College level to the student level. Thus the student leadership roles are limited - the Head Leaders serve as a kind of student council, with their decision making limited to within the Centre.

Unique Curriculum

Kate and Christina's strong sense of autonomy and freedom are apparent in their creativity and level of risk-taking in relation to developing curriculum. There are three aspects of the Centre's unique curriculum that I would like to draw attention to: the mutual work of teachers and students in developing the curriculum, the teachers' consciousness of the group, and the approach of literacy as social practice. Although an analysis of curricula is not a focus of this study, I will give a general description of the organization of their courses, then discuss the style and content of instruction that relate to relationships and power dynamics. I will show examples of students and teachers working together to create the curriculum. This is followed by ways curriculum is shaped by the teachers' approach of literacy as social practice and their consciousness of the group. The main example used is the Centre's writing program, specifically Kate's Never Fail Writing Program.

Every student that starts at the Centre is given a folder to keep track of their coursework. The outlines of the requirements for the two Math courses (010, 020) are each on orange coloured legal-sized paper, the three English courses (010, 020, 025) are on pink. The outlines are clear and basic; the math outline takes up less than half the sheet, the English course outlines fill the page, with spaces for students to keep a brief record of the spelling test marks, to write the name and date of their ten pieces of writing and the books they read. Students can attend the Centre and only work individually to complete these basic courses, but most of them become involved in the wide range of courses and activities at the Centre. The teachers now regularly open each new year with courses on life skills, and they repeat certain theme units that are popular with students, such as Heroes or Learning.