Chasing the Beast

Dee McRae

Dancing in the Dark: How do Adults with Little Formal Education Learn? How do Literacy Practitioners do Collaborative Research? By Marina Niks, Darcy Allen, Paula Davies, Dee McRae and Kate Nonesuch, 2003. The Dancing in the Dark research team is moderating an electronic conference about their report November 15 to December 14, 2003 on The Hub, the BC literacy electronic network.

The Dancing in the Dark project was our first attempt at this type of endeavour, so we are to be forgiven. How were we to know what we were getting into? We wanted to learn more about research. We wanted to work together. One thing led to another. Gradually the project took on the feel of a first, but collaborative, pregnancy – an obsession, demanding more and more of our time, emotions, and DNA.

At the end of our extended pregnancy, we collaboratively and painfully birthed the babe. The final research report is the test if you like, the item the rest of the world (slight exaggeration) will use to evaluate both our project and us as researchers. Like any report and any baby, what you see in the report is like what you see of an extended family history when you look only at a picture of the baby - only a fraction of the entire endeavour. There is simply no way a photograph can capture an entire child, no way a report can capture an entire project.

The report was published almost one year ago, and now seems to be making its way around the world, following ocean currents, being passed from person to person and pulsing its independent way through cyberspace. We, the writers, are now the collaborative mothers of the “beast” we gave birth to, the beast who now seems to have a life of its own. We face a dilemma: do we feed it and encourage this beast to grow, or do we smother it now before it takes control of our collective lives?

We decided, not without hesitation, that the electronic conference on The Hub is an amazing opportunity for our darling creation to go forth into the world. It will allow us to delve more deeply into the project, and to get below the surface of the report. We are both excited and scared. Is our babe ready for this? Are we ready? We know our report is like any demanding first born, far from perfect, so how will others react? Will they see beauty or beast? Where will this step take the research and the researchers? As collaborative mothers, we have learned from our creation and we appreciate there is only one strategy we can use to find these answers. We must just do it.

So forgive us as we charge blindly after our “little precious.” We have no idea where we are going or when we will arrive. We hope you will join us for our online discussion about learning, researching and literacy. Who knows where else the darling will take us? We plan to have fun in the process, make new connections and dream new dreams. And isn’t that what learning is all about?