Reflections from Newfoundland - Tracy Defoe

For me, St. John’s was a treat, and a retreat too. I was there to celebrate the launch of the new journal Literacies: researching practice, practising research. Treat. I also went to share the implications for practice from the In-Sites research project that I have been working on for almost five years. Treat. The biggest treat though was the Literacy Practices course I took with Mary Hamilton of Lancaster, UK. Since 1998 I have been reading Mary’s and others’ work about literacies as social practice –the moments and ways literacy is woven into our lives. In our small and intimate group we had Elsa Auerbach, a noted researcher from the US, as our recorder. Sweet.

Like many there, my work is hard to fit in a box. I do literacy research but I am not a graduate student or a university-based academic. I teach but I am not employed by a college or a community group. I’m a practitioner by many definitions, although I don’t like that term. But in St. John’s, even though I think I was the only workplace educator there, I fit. I have attended all the other conferences in this series, and I hope we keep it up. Traveling to Newfoundland from Vancouver, and staying in the simplicity of the dorm was a time away from the activities of my regular life and a welcome retreat to think about why I was there, and what researching literacies means to me, and to others.

Case studies from Mary Hamilton’s course in St. John’s are posted on the web at www.brown.edu/lrri/hamilton.html.

Tracy Defoe is a workplace literacy educator and researcher in Vancouver.

Bonnie Soroke

Oh it was such a treat to be surrounded by people who speak the same language (of literacy, of research), who are interested and interesting, and so full of warmth and support. In that atmosphere I thrive, I glow on the street like a neon raspberry. I feel such surges of power that come from and through this group, this group that feeds ideas, that renews energy, that builds on a strength that ANYTHING is possible! So yes, in a word, my experience of Newfoundland was quite invigorating.

Bonnie Soroke is a Master’s student at the University of British Columbia and an active participant in RiPAL-BC.

Research begins at the Canucks Family Education Centre

Jean Rasmussen

Research is beginning this fall at the Canucks Family Education Centre to examine the social, economic and educational impacts of a “comprehensive approach to family literacy” over a three year period.

The Canucks Family Education Centre is a partnership between Britannia Community Services Centre, Canucks for Kids Fund and Literacy BC. The Centre’s mandate is to positively impact low literacy levels on Vancouver’s east side by providing a rovincial and national demonstration model of a coordinated, comprehensive, integrated services approach to family literacy and life-long learning. The charitable arm of the Vancouver Canucks, the Canucks for Kids Fund, has provided $150,000 over a threeyear period to provide programming, resources and staff for the Centre.

For more information contact:
Jean Rasmussen, Director
Phone: 604 713-8273 or
604 773-8249
Email: JRasmussen@literacy.bc.ca