7.0 Client Interviews and Profiles

The client interviews presented an unanticipated challenge and reward to the researcher. The fact that interviewees were willing to come forward spoke highly for their interest in "making it better for others". It took a great deal of courage for many women to allow themselves to be singled out of a population where often it is safer not to draw attention to one's self. The researcher encountered a wide range of participants, from articulate, self-confident women to some whose self-concept appeared to be very low.

What was unexpected was how relatively quiet the voices of many women would be. In most cases, the local Elizabeth Fry Societies were not able to readily identify women who were in or had been in a literacy program. This more than underscored the nature of the problem; women in conflict with the law were not attending programs, for a variety of reasons. Some had attended sporadically, while others were not reachable, due to a high rate of transience.

A more poignant reason for some women not coming forward with their stories was a fear of how the information might be used. In an article on her experiences of teaching writing in a women's prison in Framingham, Massachusetts, Andrea Loewenstein states that the women "exist at a knife-edged concentration of American womanhood." This description is most appropriate to the women interviewed in the course of this study.

The researcher was keenly aware of the distances she had to attempt to overcome during the interviews. Distances of class, race, education and freedom itself came between the researcher and the interviewees. The profiles presented here were prepared in order to conform to a protocol of strict confidentiality. Names, places and identifying circumstances have been omitted for this reason.

7.1 Profile 1

This student was studying in a community-based literacy program. She had only completed Grade Seven, and had not attended school in about 30 years. She had felt hesitant, at first, about entering a structured learning situation.

Now, however, she speaks about her teachers in the literacy training course, characterizing them an "very approachable". She says her current teacher has a lot of patience. At present, she attends a group program once per week for three hours, and is anxious to chat with her tutor to try to extend her weekly hours. She has set herself a short-term goal of attending twice per week, but her long-term goal is to become a journalist. She enjoys writing, and hopes to do it for a living someday.

One observation she shared about the program is that it took her three or four attempts before she found a teacher she felt comfortable with. She noted that other students who were not as motivated might have given up and decided it wasn't worth it. She spoke of the personalities of her earlier teachers as being "very hard to get along with sometimes", and observed that " once you get a good match, motivation is not a problem."