version 2.3
Any comments are welcome.

Documents for Knitting
Document Management Practices in a Craft
Workshop for Bilingual Migrant Women∗

Yusuke Nakamura**
University of Tokyo

Yoshiaki Hisamatsu
University of Tokyo

March 5, 2003, Tokyo

Prepared for delivery at the 2003 meeting of the Latin American
Studies Association, Dallas, Texas, March 27-29, 2003∗

This paper is a spin-off from the executive summary draft on the research outcome ofDocument Management Practices in Centro Educativo Multifuncional, Villa Armonía(CEMVA) Project (Sucre, Bolivia). We would like to thank the staff and participants of
CEMVA and Nihon Vogue Co., Ltd. for contributions to the project. This research was
financially supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research [KAKENHI] by the Ministryof Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Japan): “Study on Learning
Environment for Literacy Skills: the case of local communities in Bolivia” (1999~2001). We
are responsible for any remaining errors.
**
Correspondence: Yusuke NAKAMURA, Associate Professor, Department of Cultural
Anthropology, University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
yusnak@bunjin.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp.

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Introduction
This is a study on the document management (DM) practices of low-income bilingual migrant women in
Bolivia. The study is based upon a research project carried out from August 1999 to November 2001 in theknitting course of a craft workshop in a small non-governmental educational center, Centro Educativo
Multifuncional, Villa Armonía (CEMVA), located in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Sucre, Bolivia.
The main theme of this study consists in the analysis of how people handle various visual symbols, how
they use documents, and how they interact with each other via documents. Thus, it is related to, but broader anddeeper than, conventional research scope of typical “literacy” studies. The main protagonists of this study, theparticipants in the CEMVA’s knitting course, could fail to be qualified as “functionally literate” in the ordinary
parlance of literacy studies. Instead of relying on the “literacy” concept, we are determined to focus on a set ofvarious document management practices in this study. We analyze a variety of document management practices
in a particular situation, i.e., the knitting course of craft workshop in our case.
Section 1 highlights the importance of a set of human activities in the modern world which are usuallydescribed and analyzed with the concept of “literacy”. However, we argue that the concept of “literacy” fails to
capture aptly the nuts and bolts of the phenomena in question: people are dealing with a particular kind of
instrument, documents. “Read and write letters” constitutes only a part of the highly complicated human/artifact
interactions. In order to operationalize literacy, we propose the concept of document management. First, weclassify diverse visual symbols used in documents in the following three major categories: figures, numerals
and letters. A set of sequential activities (recording-preservation-reference-disposal) regarding a particular
document is called document cycle, and a series of recurrent, goal-directed activities by no less than one
individual which constitute document cycles are called document management practices. Introduction of certain
document management practices into people’s life entails both the acquisition of particular document
management skills by individual, and the development of document communities based upon the shared rules
and ethics about particular document cycles. We propose an action–research especially suited to non-formal
education institutions in developing countries.
Section 2 starts by discussing why we selected the craft workshop in a non-governmental non-formal
educational center near Sucre, Bolivia. There are a number of reasons: course participants can be classified as“functionally illiterate,” whose document management practices are expected to be poor; they have a stablelearning environment in the course; and we can rely on institutional support for trying out various experimental
activities. The crux of our research method is repeated implementation of various document management
practices as exercises. We implemented various kinds of documents related to the knitting course such as futureplans, calendars, receipts, new knitting reference book, etc, and encouraged the participants to file them forreference in the future. At the side of the participants, we observed how each document management practice isadopted or ignored.
Section 3 presents the results of our action research. It must be noted that we form our understanding by
way of building hypothesis, rather than testing hypothesis already formulated. We feel confident of explaining
why some document management practices are exercised better than others. We have detected that there is
uneven distribution of skills as well as clear preferences for certain types of visual symbols. We have also
observed there is significant lack of cyclical perspectives. We draw a number of suggestions for the further
study and activities.
Conclusion highlights two important aspects of document management approach: diagnostic andpedagogical tools.

1 From Literacy to Document Management
1-1 Literacy as a Root Metaphor in the Modern World
Today, there is a fairly general agreement that literacy is one of the key concepts for development in themodern world. For example, Human Development Report by UNDP says:
Human development is a process of enlarging people' choices. Enlarging people's choices is achieved byexpanding human capabilities and functionings. At all levels of development the three essential capabilities
for human development are for people to lead long and healthy lives, to be knowledgeable and to have adecent standard of living. If these basic capabilities are not achieved, many choices are simply not available
and many opportunities remain inaccessible. But the realm of human development goes further: essential

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areas of choice, highly valued by people, range from political, economic and social opportunities for being
creative and productive to enjoying self-respect, empowerment and a sense of belonging to a community.
<http://hdr.undp.org//hd/glossary.cfm>
While this issue is very important in developing countries, it is not argued that the so-called developed
countries have already solved the literacy problems. The first report of the OECD International Adult Literacy
Survey says:
In recent years, adult literacy has come to be seen as crucial to the economic performance of industrialized
nations. Literacy is no longer defined merely in terms of a basic threshold of reading ability, mastered byalmost all those growing up in developed countries. Rather, literacy is now seen as how adults use written
information to function in society. Today, adults need a higher level of literacy to function well: society has
become more complex and how-skill jobs are disappearing. Therefore, inadequate levels of literacy amonga broad section of the population potentially threaten the strength of economics and social cohesion ofnations. (OECD, Statistics Canada 1995: 13)
In recent years, adult literacy has come to be seen as crucial to the economic performance of industrialized
nations. Literacy is no longer defined merely in terms of a basic threshold of reading ability, mastered by almost
all those growing up in developed countries. Rather, literacy is now seen as how adults use written information
to function in society. Today, adults need a higher level of literacy to function well: society has become more
complex and how-skill jobs are disappearing. Therefore, inadequate levels of literacy among a broad section of
the population potentially threaten the strength of economics and social cohesion of nations. (Adult Literacy andLifeskills Survey, http://www.ets.org/all/survey.html)

1-2 Operationalizing Literacy – Introduction of the Concept of Document
Management Practices
Such a great deal of public attention clearly suggests that the term “literacy” strikes some very crucial
aspects of our lives in the modern world. Literacy and related terms are now used as powerful metaphors toconceptualize and describe diverse issues: e.g. “media literacy”, “environmental literacy”, “read mind” and“read economic trends” 1. Nonetheless, in spite of its overall popularity, we think that the term fails to capture
aptly the nitty-gritty of the phenomena in question.
We claim that the phenomena we are interested in are particular kinds of tool-use. What we actuallyencounter with "literacy" as central theme in mind are, in fact, complicated interactions between human beingsand miscellaneous artifacts such as "newspapers", "bills", receipts", "calendars", "plans", "maps", "diagrams","missives", "manuals", "T-shirts or commodities with logos". As is explained later, we call these diverse
artifacts with visual symbols on their surfaces “documents”.
We are afraid the use of the term “literacy” obscures this simple but important fact of tool-use. In particular,when these practices are analyzed from the “literacy” perspectives, the analyses are liable to serious
deformation because of the following two interrelated tendencies in those perspectives.

Predominance of Attention to Letters
As might be well expected from its etymology, in many conceptualizations of literacy, it is argued thatthey are primarily concerned with letters. But letters are only one particular category of visual symbols
inscribed on the surface of hard materials and recognized as such by human beings. There is no strong reason to
suppose a priori that letters always occupies a central position in these multifarious artifacts for the people weare interested in. The term “visual literacy,” which is employed to deal with miscellaneous visual symbols, isflawed by somewhat similar bias as the notorious term “oral literature”.

1

At the beginning of the year 2003, about 3,980,000 sites are hit by the keyword “literacy” in the search engine of
Google (www.google.com). In particular, it occupies a central place in the poverty alleviation policies (ex. 327,000
hits with the keywords “literacy” and “poverty” in the search engine of Google around the same time).

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Predominance of Analogy with Oral Language Communication
The material employed as medium greatly matters to every kind of communication between humanbeings. Oral language communication is no exception: it is realized through manipulation of air. However, thecurrent conceptualization of literacy is a proof of our tendency to treat the interactions between human beingsand documents by analogy with (if not extension of) oral language communication. Namely, “read and write”
are usually identified as the two major activities of literacy practices, just as "speaking and listening" are thetwo major activities of oral language communication. In reality, "reading and writing" are just two phases of far
more complex cyclical processes involving documents which consist of various activities such as making,conserving, delivering and disposal. We can hardly find corresponding phenomena in oral language uses, aside
from metaphorical descriptions of human memory2. But the complex processes documents go through in thereal world have gathered much lesser attention of researchers of literacy studies than their “read and “write”
phases, so far.
For these theoretical reasons, we believe it is desirable to formulate a new concept in order to investigate
the issues commonly described with the term “literacy.” In addition, it appears recent advances in literacy
studies themselves, in particular those taking field-oriented approaches, call for operationalization needs of theliteracy concept. Let us take only three instances among the many. First, Oxenham et al. (2002) summarize theresults of various projects which link livelihood skill formation to literacy in Africa. The study argues that theattachment of literacy component to livelihood training is more effective than vice versa. It is because
participants are more eager to acquire skills in specific than to acquire literacy in general. This finding leads tothe needs of formulate the literacy component suitable to each livelihood training. Second, Mikulecky and
Lloyd (1993) find that in the workplace literacy training in North America the literacy outcome is quite limited
to the area where the training is exercised. That is, there is no transfer from one sub-area to the other sub-area inthe broad-defined category of literacy. One literacy achivement does not lead to another. This finding calls forthe targeting needs of literacy training. Third, Burchfield et al. (2002) find that integrated literacy training goes
hand in hand with broad social and economic development in Bolivia in a large sample survey, and that thetargeting in income-generation and health areas is quite effective. This finding, on the one hand, confirms therelevance of literacy training, and, on the other hand, calls for the needs of customization of literacy training forspecific purposes in the Bolivian context. All in all, recent advances in literacy studies would point out that
operationalizing literacy into specific livelihood training is one of the most promising research program in the
future.3
In fact, the phenomena we encountered in the craft workshop of a small city in Bolivia were toocomplicated to be dealt with the ordinary concept of “functional illiteracy.” Thus, we propose a concept of“document management practices.” In a few words, it is an attempt to operationalize the concept of literacy forthe purpose of field research. Let us start with the definition of the term “documents.”

Documents and three categories of visual symbols on them
The starting point for our study is that we are addressing a set of issues concerning a specific kind oftool-use. The tools in question are “documents.” According to Oxford English Dictionary(http://dictionary.oed.com/), the fourth meaning of the word “document” says “something written, inscribed,
etc., which furnishes evidence or information upon any subject, as a manuscript, title-deed, tomb-stone, coin,
picture, etc. (since 18th century)”.
2

It should be noted also that no glottal writing system can represent perfectly oral utterances. While the distinction
between phonograms (ex. alphabets) and ideographs (ex. Chinese characters) has been one of the controversial topics
in grammatological studies, all the existing usable writing systems are realized by the combination of semantic uses(including various layout techniques such as spacing between words) and phonetic uses (approximate visual
representations of speech sounds at the syllabic or phonemic level) of visual symbols for particular languages(DeFrancis 1989). Examples from English written with alphabets are the differentiation of the meanings between“white house” and “White House,” or between “fieldwork” and “field work.”
3
Following Oxenham et al., what we mean by livelihood is “knowledge, skills, and methods used to produce orobtain the food, water, clothing and shelter necessary for survival and well-being, whether the economy is subsistence,monetized, or a mixture of both.” (2002: 7)

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Whereas “literacy” perspectives tend to attach predominant importance to the letters, we consider them as
one of the three major categories of visual symbols inscribed on the flat surfaces of documents (Figure 1).
(1) Figures: miscellaneous visual symbols (such as points, lines and planes of different colors) for representing
relational and structural information. Various types of drawings, maps, charts and graphs are included in thiscategory.
(2) Numerals: systems of symbols specialized in the representation of quantitative information and its
mathematical operations. This category mainly concerns various numeral systems such as Arabic, Roman andChinese etc and mathematical symbols.
(3) Letters: systems of visual symbols specialized in the representation of speech. This is the category which
concerns the letters per se, viz., “glottal writing systems”.
You might argue that it is more appropriate to consider the numerals and letters as two major sub-categories of
figures specialized in the representations of particular types of information: quantities and language. And yet,
we think it is more practical to narrow the boundary of the category “figures” and maintain a distinction among
these categories for analytical purposes4.

180
160

･ ･･ ････ ･････････ ････････････････

140
120

I, II, IV, IX, XIV, XXV, XXXVI, XLIX,Y = X2

1, 2, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100,
one, two, four, nine, sixteen, twenty-five,

100
80
60
40
20
13

7

10

4

1

0

Figure 1: Examples of Diverse Representational Modes of a Presumably
Similar Computation Implemented in the Same Way
If appropriately laid out, association of figures, numerals and letters can be used
to represent a variety of things. Each representational mode has its own pros
and cons depending on the issues to represent. (cf. Marr 1982)

In reality, each of these three types of visual symbols rarely appears on documents in isolations from theother two. On the contrary, when thoughtfully combined, they become powerful tools of thought,
communication and expression for us (Tufte 1983, 1990, 1997). And yet, it is noteworthy that both quality andquantity of efforts necessary for mastering and operating visual symbols vary greatly in accordance with theircharacteristics.
First, figure-type visual representations are both the oldest and most general visual symbols among thethree categories. At least since the “cultural explosion” period (60,000 – 30,000 BP), there has never been a“society without figures”. An eloquent evidence is that we have seen an explosive diffusion of participatory
appraisal methods in developing countries during the last two decades, where figure-type symbols wereextensively employed and welcomed enthusiastically by “semiliterate” and “illiterate” people. It does not meanthat figures are visual symbols for primitive and low-educated people. Figures abound in the modern offices,
factories and laboratories of industrialized countries, too. These facts suggest that the general ability to draw
and interpret figures seems to be a well innate one of human beings, although this potential is not always fully
exploited.
Just as there has been no society which makes no use of figures, there has been no society which does notuse numbers. The difference between the two symbols lies in human abilities to capture them. According to4

Similar tripartite classifications are employed by the above mentioned International Adult Literacy Survey (1995,
1997 & 2000) (http://www.nald.ca/nls/ials/introduc.htm), and its successor Adult Literacy and Lifeskills Survey(http://www.ets.org/all/survey.html).

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recent cognitive science studies, our proto-numerical abilities are very limited without languages or cognitive
artifacts such as numerals.
An organ specialized in the perception and representation of numerical quantities lies anchored in ourbrain. Its characteristics unequivocally connect it to the proto-numerical abilities found in animals and in
infants. It can accurately code only sets whose numerosity does not exceed 3, and it tends to confuse
numbers as they get larger and closer.
What modern mathematicians call numbers include zero, negative integers, fractions, irrational numbers
such as π, and complex numbers such as i (root of minus one). Yet all of these entities, except perhaps thesimplest fractions such as 1/2 or 1/4, posed extraordinary conceptual difficulties to mathematicians in
centuries past – and they still impose great hardship on today’s pupils (Dehaene 1997: 86, 87)Thus, mastering numeracy skills signifies a painstaking construction of an ever-developing complex system forpursuing numerical universe from a rather modest innate basis with supports from great mathematicalinventions realized by foregoers5. Thus, it is generally observed that there is an impressive gap between the
innate abilities and acquired skills for numeracy. As most of us notice after leaving school, we need strong
efforts to continue using and improving our numeracy skills.
We cannot find such a great gap between nature and nurture for the mastery of writing systems. While itis quite difficult to manipulate letters at will even in the cases of writing systems containing only dozens ofletters such as alphabets, every healthy adult person can maneuver their mother tongues in oral mode beautifully.
Two interrelated issues are involved in the process of mastering literacy skills per se: the learning conditions ofindividuals and the maturity of languages as “grapholects”. The latter poses serious problems for the promotionof literacy in “languages without long writing tradition”, such as indigenous languages of Sub-Saharan Africa
and Latin America. Whereas the introductory campaigns for non-literate people can be successful with primers
prepared especially for the campaigns, post-literacy campaigns often fall into stagnation because of the scarcity
of documents written in those newly written languages. The poor circulation of documents aggravates their
quality, and vice versa6.
The above cursory review suggests that the costs of using three types of visual symbols vary significantly
depending on diverse factors such as our innate abilities and learning conditions, elaboration of representationalmodes, and material conditions for their implementations.

Document Management (DM)
It is almost a cliché to equate the main
activities of “literate” people with “reading andwriting.” However, they are only two phases of
morecomplicatedprocessofrecording-preservation-reference-disposal(Figure 2). We use, therefore, the term “manage”
as a generic term for these various but closelyinterrelated activities.
Once produced, documents undergo
complex processes during which they aremodified, preserved, referred to, copied, handed
over to other people/places…, and most of them
are thrown out in the end. Let us call this entire
process “document cycles”. While somedocuments have rather stable and standardized

Preservation

Recording

Reference
Disposal
Figure 2: Schematic Model of Document Cycle

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As a matter of course, there are people who are able to carry out quite complex calculations without taking notes,
some of whom are qualified as “illiterate” (Lave 1988, Nunes et al. 1993). Furthermore, electric calculators are taking
over calculating tasks by human beings increasingly. And yet, it is still true that written arithmetic and algebraic skills
help most of us greatly.
6
Please recall that the mature grapholects have gone through centuries of gradual but profound transformations toreach the current state which now possess not a few unique characteristics distinct from their oral counterparts. Cf.
Olson 1994. See Cavallo, Guglielmo & Roger Chartier 1997 for the cases of European languages.

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cycles, others follow irregular and unpredictable cycles.

Document Management Practices
The nature of document cycles depends on various factors including material conditions of documents.
However, document cycles are not reducible to technological attributes of documents. The cycles come into
being only through complicated long-term interplay among individuals and documents. Then, in order tounderstand how these cycles are realized (or fail to be realized), it is crucial to bring into focus the daily
practices, namely “a recurrent, goal-directed sequence of activities using a particular technology and particularsystems of knowledge” (Scribner and Cole 1981: 236), of individuals handling documents.
We can argue that people who are interconnected through certain documents constitute a kind ofcommunity underpinned by the shared trust in them. Let us use the term "document community" to refer to thiskind of community. Viewing from this perspective, what are called "mature literate societies" are in fact
conglomerates of multifarious document communities. Calendars, passports, fliers, certificates, Scriptures, bills
etc. have their own document cycles. The "literate people" are those who can deal with countless documents
they meet everyday properly (fill out, sign, modify, preserve, pass on to other people, ignore, throw away, etc.)
depending on the contexts and following the norms and ethics shared by the document communities they belongto.
In practice, it is possible, not easy though, to trace the cycles of various documents to some extent throughfield research. And yet, document communities rarely do manifest themselves in a conspicuous way. In
particular, when documents get around smoothly in day-to-day situations, it is difficult both for the parties
concerned and outside observers to make explicit the regulating social norms behind the scenes. Nonetheless,
we cannot do away with the supposition of the existence of those communities not only for the sake of research
but also as inhabitants of "literate societies".

Two Aspects of Assessment of DM Practices
Documents are almost ubiquitous in the modern world. We propose to examine DM practices focusing on
the following two aspects in the field.
(1) How are different visual symbols associated on the surfaces of documents?
There are often several combinations of visual symbols for representing similar things (see Figure 1). The
choice is decided not only on the basis of effectiveness, but also by education, preference, and customs.
Therefore, the most convenient combinations for the majority is not necessarily adopted for circulation.
Therefore, it is important to examine what kind of visual symbols tend to be produced and prevail in different
situations.
(2) What kind of cycles do documents go through?
DM practices consist of recording, preservation, reference, and disposal. It is important to observe how
the participants manage document for each specific purpose. Some document cycles may be weak, others may
be stable. And, some may not be born yet.
Examined from the two aspects, DM practices inparticular situations can be assessed. We could
observe some DM practices are implemented better
than others. We need an analytical framework to
explain the tendency.

SocialAbstract

Concrete

Analytical Framework of DM Practices
Each DM practice has its own characteristics.
We propose to classify DM practices from thefollowing two axes (Figure 3):
Axis-1:thecharacteristics

ofinformation

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Individual
Figure 3: Two Axes for theClassification of DM Practices

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represented on the documents: concrete – abstract. It can be varied from concrete ones like drawings ofknitwear to abstract ones like tables of balance sheets.
Axis-2: the social compass of the document cycles: individual – social. While some DM practices are
confined to the private realms of individuals (ex. diaries), other documents circulate among numerous people(ex. paper currencies).
We believe this is a useful way of classifying a number of DM exercises. As described below (section 2-2),
DM exercises conducted in our research project are classified according to this framework for evaluation andpolicy purposes.
This is a brief overview of the concept of DM practices. We think that the concept of DM practices can beapplied to various research topics as long as any “literacy” issues or documents are concerned. Nonetheless, theconcept has to be customized further in accordance with the circumstance of each research project. In our
research project on a small craft workshop for low-income bilingual migrant women in Bolivia, the DM concept
was elaborated so that we could take advantage of two practical utilities of the concept in field as explained in
the next section.

1-3 DM Perspective in Action – Field Research on Non-Formal Education (NFE)
Institutions for Adults with Poor Educational BackgroundTwo Main Utilities of DM in the Field: Diagnostics and Improvement in NFE
Institutions
Our research project was conducted in a craft workshop for bilingual migrant women, namely, a kind of
non-formal education (NFE) institution for vocational training. We believe our research project has substantial
contribution at two levels. On the one hand, the findings of research project shed light on the actual problems of"functionally illiterate" people from multiple aspects. This is the diagnostic aspect of DM approach. On theother hand, research findings can be used for promoting current DM practices by introducing more effective
DM exercises. This is the pedagogical aspect of DM approach. We can emphasize that these two aspects, both
diagnostic and pedagogical, go hand in hand. In practice, DM exercises are expected to be customized in an
evolutionary manner so that DM exercises become more suited to particular situations by taking into accountthe findings from prior exercises.
The NFE institutions for people with poor educational backgrounds have several important characteristics
from the DM perspective as below:(1) Most participants are “illiterate” or “semiliterate”. In other words, they have only poor DM skills.
(2) As a consequence, it is difficult for those NFE institutions to serve as a platform of a complex of document
communities. For example, almost all activities in these institutions tend to be realized through oral
communication involving poor document cycles.
(3) The above difficulties tend to be aggravated because of insufficient financial, material and human resources
available to NFE institutions.
These characteristics are likely to form a vicious cycle. However, there are a few characteristics favorable
for the development of useful DM practices in NFE institutions.
(4) In general, the curriculums of NFE institutions are flexible in comparison with their formal counterparts.
Therefore, it is easier to experiment various DM exercises.
(5) Most participants are adults under pressure to acquire DM skills useful for the betterment of their living
standards. Therefore, it is easier to select and prioritize DM skills appropriate for the vocational training which
the participants are tackling (what are called “functional literacy”).
In brief, the diagnostic aspect and the pedagogical aspect of DM can be integrated in daily activities of
NFE institutions. DM approach can be applied in the field research as a conceptual tool for implementing a kindof action research projects. In the following section, we explain how the concept of DM was applied to theexisting activities in the knitting course.

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2 Research Framework
2-1 Why Bolivia, Why Craft Workshop for Urban Poor?
Poverty and Education in Bolivia – Needs of Non-Formal Education
Bolivia is a country which needs quantitatively larger and qualitatively better non-formal education.
There are various reasons.
According to Bolivia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper published in March 2001, it is estimated that in1999, 46 percent persons who speak only Spanish in urban area were in poverty and 18 percent were in extreme
poverty. In contrast, 58 percent of persons who speak indigenous language in urban area were in poverty andjust under 30 percent were in extreme poverty. The differences in living standards between indigenous andnon-indigenous people in urban area could be attributed to various factors, including discrimination andsegregation, difference in education, and access to social services and labor market.
If education is defined as accumulation of productive skills, it is arguably one of the most important waysof upgrading the living standard. A poverty stricken country such as Bolivia needs educational improvement
desperately. And, education should encompass not only formal education which focuses on particular age
groups, but also NFE which is more flexible and technical-oriented for the sake of mainly adult participants.
Many persons in Bolivia who have fallen out of the formal education need another educational opportunity.
That is precisely the role which should be filled by NFE.
Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper also shows that between 1985 and 1997 an average 7 out of 10 jobs
were created by micro and small enterprises, where many persons learn jobs informally and unsystematicallythrough on-the-job training. It is expected that NFE, if properly designed, would complement on-the-job
training.

Bilingualism and Non-formal Education for Indigenous People
The choice of languages (and scripts in some cases) affects greatly the course of DM practices. In fact,bilingualism has been one of the most controversial issues in the history of educational policy and programs forindigenous people in Bolivia.
An important issue of bilingual education in the present Bolivia from the DM perspective is theimmaturity of indigenous languages as written languages. We can notice it, not only from the incessant debateson the “appropriate” orthographies, but also from the scarce presence of documents written in indigenous
languages in the Bolivian society7.

Knitting and Document Management
Some might wonder if there is any significant
interrelation between knitting and document management. In
fact, we know that there have been a number of great textile
traditions in both “literate” and “non-literate societies”
including pre-Columbian South American societies. These facts
attest that we do not always need to manage documents in orderto make high quality knit items. And yet, documents are rather
closely linked with knitting activities in the modern world in thefollowing aspects.

(1) Planning and realization of elaborate designs
Figures and written arithmetic can help us to plan andcarry out highly elaborate designs cost-effectively.
For example, geometric patterns composed of visual
symbols called “knitting symbols” are popular among both
7

Photo 1: Example of Stitch
Patterns Represented with
Knitting Symbols. Used in DM
exercises in CEMVA in 2000.

A recent significant exception is the production of primers in the indigenous languages in the Reforma Educativa
started in 1994 (http://www.veips.gov.bo/). See Archondo (1999) for the debates on the position of indigenous
languages and cultures in the reform.

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professional and amateur knitters in many developed countries (Photo 1). These figures enable them to copy andinvent new patterns with less cost than trying out them actually with yarn and needles. Figures can be also used
for the planning of sophisticated three-dimensional shapes such as sweaters of modern western styles (Photo 2).
The shapes of knitwear do not have to be as strict as those of needlecraft: the elasticity of knit cloth is as high as
10 % and some people prefer loose-fitting knitwear to tight silhouette one. However, the shapes of some parts
such as neckline and armholes remain of crucial importance from aesthetical point of view for many people.
The subtle differences of shapes influence the price setting and the sales of commercial knitwear greatly inmarket economy. Knitters can make drafts of the images in their mind freely before knitting them.
There comes in written arithmetic. First, gauge count is
indispensable for the realization of the planned stitch design,
because the density of knit cloth varies greatly according to thesizes of yarn and needle, the selected stitch patterns, the desired
feelings (tight or loose and lacy), and the knitters’ hand, so on.
Therefore, the knitters have to prepare a small swatch (15 cm x
15 cm in general) and count the stitches and rows per unit (10cm x 10 cm at the center, for example)8.
These counts are multiplied in order to know thenecessary numbers of stitches and rows for different parts
including the subtly curbed ones such as necklines, of which thecurbed shapes are approximated with orthogonal cross lines(Photo 2). It is very difficult to work up the shapes of theseparts as designed smoothly without knowing the necessary
numbers of stitches and rows in advance, and written arithmetic
certainly comes in for these tasks. As we will see below, people
with poor written arithmetic skills tend to fail to realize
sophisticated designs.

(2) Commercialization of Knitwear
As is noted above, documents can be employed as
powerful tools for making quality knitwear. One of the major
reasons for the pursuit of high quality is surelycommercialization of the products. In the case of order madesystems of hand knit items, several kinds of more complex DM
come in, such as bookkeeping and advertising. These
commercial DMs are naturally loosely linked with the above
DMs for quality knit products.

Photo 2: Close up of Drafting for a
Sweater.
A curbed line for armhole isapproximated with orthogonal crosslines, of which units are determinedbased upon the gauge count for thisproduction. Original size: 9 cm x 12 cm.

Knitting Course of CEMVA
The main protagonists of our research project are bilingual speakers of Quechua and Spanish learningknitting in a craft workshop of a small NGO located at the outskirts of the city of Sucre, the capital of thedepartment of Chuquisaca. It is a typical NFE institution for the poor in developing countries.
Three craft courses were offered in 1999: knitting, needlework and leatherwork. The participants of theworkshop pay 5 Bolivianos (Bs.) for registration and 10 to 15 Bs. as a monthly fee of the courses9. These
expenditures are certainly not negligible ones for the ordinary inhabitants of this zone. They attend the craft
courses mainly for acquiring manual skills useful in their daily life. Moreover, they hope that these skills would
give them more chances to earn some money. Therefore, we might be able to qualify the course participants as“middle class of the poor” in that they afford these expenditures despite their rather severe and unstable living
conditions.
The general characteristics of the knitting course participants as of August, 2000 can be summarized as
below:

89

See http://knitting.about.com/mbody.htm for more information on gauge count.
One US dollar was almost equivalent to about five Bs. around the year of 2000

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♦
♦
♦
♦
♦
♦
♦

Number of the participants: 35, all women
Age (years): 11 ~ 38, mean = 18.7, mode = 16 (6 women)
Civil State: married = 13, single = 22
Languages: Quechua & Spanish
Average of Educational Background (years): = 5.8
Main Daily Activities: Domestic chores
Interests in the Craft Workshop: To acquire craft skills, School-like atmosphere, to meet friends etc.

Most of them can be characterized as “functionally illiterate” if we follow the parlance of the development aid
circle.

Start of the Research Project
The knitting course is one of several courses offered in the craft workshop of CEMVA. All the membersof the knitting course were women from teenagers to womenover thirties. While some were born in rural areas before
moving into this area, others were born in this neighborhood.
Most of them were bilingual speakers of Quechua and Spanish.
They had received only primary education (a few girls were stillin school) and somehow managed to read and write rudimentary
Spanish texts, but had only minimum habits of using documentsin their daily lives.
As the participants' lives were tightly incorporated into
the city of Sucre that is both political and economic center of
the area, the staff of the workshop were keenly aware of thenecessity for them to master some kinds of alfabetización. They
felt those skills must constitute a kind of "life skills" for thepeople living in severe conditions. However, the staff had
sensed that the existing ordinary alfabetización programs were
not appropriate for tackling this difficult issue.
Thus, we - the researchers and the workshop staff decided to collaborate in order to introduce some DM exercises
into the knitting course in order to investigate the questions asfollows 10 . What kinds of documents and their management
skills are necessary and appropriate to the participants of the
Photo 3: Example of Main Pages ofknitting course? How do the participants accept, modify or
Hand-knit Albums Prepared in therefuse those attempts? If the new document management
Knitting Course (August 1999). Each
exercises do not stay with the participants firmly, what are thealbum contains 35 ~ 40 sheets. Original
causes? And what can we - the researchers, the workshop staff
size: 22 cm x 28 cm.
and the participants - can do to break through the situation?
10

The joint research project was carried out by the following people:<Research Team>
Yusuke NAKAMURA: Associate professor of the University of Tokyo (Japan): director of the research project.
Teofílo LAIME: Researcher-lecturer of the Universidad Mayor de San Andres (Bolivia): research on bilingualism
and literacy.
Hideo KIMURA: Professor of the University of Tokyo (Japan): research on rural-urban migration
Yoshiaki HISAMATSU: Assistant researcher of the University of Tokyo (Japan): quantitative data analysis.
<Craft Workshop Staff and the knitting course Participants>
Hiroko KAZAMA: UN volunteer: director of the craft workshop of CEMVA (Sucre, Bolivia): coordination of DM
exercises and research on craftworks.
Victoria MIRANA: the instructor of the knitting course, CEMVA (Sucre, Bolivia): implementation of DM
exercises.

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2-2 Research Methods and Procedures
Investigating Prior DM Practices
The joint research project started in August 1999.
To begin with, we looked into the course participants'
current DM practices more closely.
There existed several documents in the knitting
course such as manuals for knitting and the attendancebook. However, most of them were rarely used by theparticipants, except for the hand-knit albums prepared for
graduation (Photo 3). The examination of their existing
DM practices revealed that:(1) Most participants had basic skills to write down letters,
numerals and figures in order to deal with the basic tasks
Photo 4: Example of Poorly Represented
necessary for the management of the knitting course.
Histogram: Register of Consumed Balls(2) However, their spatial arrangements of letters,of Yarn in the Knitting Course
numerals and figures tend to lack order as the entries
WhereasKazama filled in the first entries
increase. For example, they tend to ignore the utility of(thefifth line at the bottom) as
section paper for visual representation of quantitative
demonstration,
the participants ignored theinformation (Photo 4). Furthermore, not a few participants
grids
for
writingin slashes, thus, thefailed to write indo-arabic numerals in accordance withresultantlines
ofslashesfail to represent
the place–value system, even though they could readthequantities
systematically.
them.
(3) They have technical skills and passion enough formaking elaborate albums on their own, but they rarely care forreferring to them in the future.
(4) The existing hand-knitting reference booklet (only four
sheets of paper) was far from easy to use. They consisted ofstep-by-step explanations of knitting procedures in typed
abbreviated Spanish texts (Photo 5).
These preliminary analyses suggested that many
participants lacked the occasions to develop their rudimentary
DM skills. It was even probable that they would lose those skills
with disuse, if they remained in such a state further. However, itappears in the knitting course there are not a few occasions inwhich it would be meaningful to manage various documents.
Therefore, we decided to start a kind of action researchjointly: implement different DM exercises in the knitting
course; monitor their results and impacts; propose new DM
exercises, so on.

Photo 5: Close up of Existing
Hand-Knitting Reference Booklet.
Knitting procedures are explained inabbreviated Spanish texts. Original
size: 21.6 cm x 28.0 cm, 4 pages.

Investigating Bilingualism and Literacy Skills
Along with the examinations of existing DM practices, at the start of the project we studied the participants’linguistic capabilities and literacy skills per se (= skills to manipulate alphabetic letters in order to represent anddecode linguistic utterances) in Quechua and Spanish using the following two methods. Whereas we could not
expect these standard scientific investigations to contribute directly to the improvement of the participants of
DM practices, the research result provided us with invaluable data concerning their bilingualism and literacy
skills.

Participants of the knitting course: In total about 50 women took part in various DM exercises including the editionof a new bilingual reference book of hand knitting. In particular, Sra. P. contributed greatly through her committed
facilitation of exercises.

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Interviews
We conducted individual interviews of the participants in order to analyze their oral competency of
Spanish and Quechua. In particular, we looked into how the verbs of manual, cognitive and attitudinal activities(ex. hacer, usar, aprender etc.) were used by them when talking about knitting.

Paper Test
We prepared a paper test in order to see how the participants write and read Spanish and Quechua. Mostof the questions concerned literacy skills in Spanish: first four sets of questions mainly asked about orthography,
phonetics and syntax in Spanish. The last two sets asked about semantics in Spanish and Quechua (including thetranslation between the two languages.
In addition, texts of Future Plans written by several participants were also analyzed in order to see theircapabilities in free composition in Spanish.

Introduction of DM Exercises
Various documents managed by the participants themselves are the main data sources of our research
project. We implemented several kinds of DM exercises in the research project as below (presented roughly by
the order of implementation):

Future Plans
As the introduction to DM exercises, we handed out to each participant a sheet of blank paper and apencil and asked them to write or draw freely what they were planning to do in the workshop in that year. The
similar exercises were implemented each year. Main documents managed in the exercises: blank sheets of paper
for making future plans.

Calendars of Activities in the Workshop
We asked the participants to make calendars for the activity plans in the workshop regularly. Calendars ofdifferent (annual, quarterly, and bimonthly) terms were used. Main documents managed in the exercises: blankcalendar sheets for planning the activities, calendars put on the walls of the knitting room for reference.

FilingIn March 2000, after several DM exercises, we provided each participant with her individual file folder
free of charge for preservation of various documents prepared in the knitting course, and thereafter we held afiling session after each major recording session. Main documents managed in the exercises: documents
prepared in various exercises.

Sociodramas
The participants were asked to act
simulations of commercial transactions involving
DMs typical of knitting industry such as thepurchase of balls of yarn in a handicraft shop andthe order for a sweater to CEMVA. These exercises
involved more complicated document cycles oflarger scale than previous ones in which they only
had to take into account themselves, peers andworkshop staff at most. The sociodrama sessions
were held twice during the project. Main
documents managed in the exercise: props for thesociodramas: calendar, flyer of CEMVA, price list,
ruler etc., order sheets and receipts.

Photo 6: Close up of a Page of New Hand
Knitting Reference Book Edited during the
Project. Knitting symbols, photos, illustrations ofknitting procedures, and bilingual explanatory texts(left: Spanish, right: Quechua) are laid out on eachpage. Original size: 21.0 cm x 31.0 cm, 43 pages.

Editing of a New Hand-Knitting
Reference Book with Knitting Symbols
When we recognized the inconvenience ofthe existing hand-knitting reference booklet (Photo4), we decided to edit a new hand-knitting

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DfK version 2.3

reference book for beginners modeled on a Japanese one11, in which the hand-knitting processes would be
explained through good combinations of letters, numerals, figures (knitting symbols and illustrations (Photo 6).
We involved the participants to the editing process as much as possible by inviting them to check the texts in
Quechua and to take part in the tryout session of the pilot version. Main documents managed in the exercises:manuscripts of texts in Quechua and Spanish, pilot version of reference book of knitting symbols, assignments
for homework in the tryout session, Japanese reference book of knitting symbols.

Production by OrderAs the final DM exercise in the project, orders
for sweaters for baby were put by the research teamthrough documents in which the shape, size anddesigns are indicated with illustrations and knitting
symbols (Photo 7). The participants went through theordinary DM process for commercial knitting
production by order: filling out of order sheets andproduction memos, issuing of receipts of advance andbalance etc. Main documents managed in the exercise:order memos prepared by Kazama, order sheets, pilot
version of reference book of knitting symbols,
Japanese reference book of knitting symbols, receipts,
production memos, evaluation sheets.

Exercise Implementation Procedures

Photo 7: Part of Order Memos madefor Production by Order Exercise
Price of the sweater =42 Bs (cost of
material included).
Original size of illustration: 12 cm x 18 cm

In order to examine the impacts of various DM
exercises on the participants, it would have been
desirable to implement the exercises in a strict andsystematic way: creation of treatment and control
groups, periodical implementations of DM exercises
etc. However, such a school-like research style did not seem appropriate or practical for a non-formal learning
institution such as CEMVA. Therefore, we decided to implement DM exercises as supplements to regularknitting activities in a rather sporadic and casual way.
And yet, it seemed unlikely that the participants would tackle those novel tasks willingly just by
encouragement. In fact, they looked well perplexed when we handed out blank sheets of paper and pencils for
Future Plans for the first time, even though we just asked them to express their plans freely on paper.
Therefore, we decided to introduce participatory methods in order to facilitate the DM exercise
implementation. Three people – Kazama, one participant, and one instructor of the Knitting course – were sent
to a one-week workshop on PRA organized by an NGO in Sucre. Fortunately, Kazama and the participant, Sra.
P got many inspirations from the workshop and started to incorporate PRA ideas and techniques, not only to theimplementation of DM exercises, but also to the daily management of the Knitting course. In particular, Sra. P
turned out to be a good facilitator. It was thanks to her active participation that the DM exercises were smoothly
implemented in our project.

Schematic Panorama of the DM Exercises
In general, documents serve multiple purposes simultaneously. As for the knitting course, we classified
the areas in which DMs are highly relevant into three major categories as below (Table 1):(1) Knitting: supports for more effective and better knit making(2) Workshop administration: coordination of individual and group activities in the workshop with documents(3) Micro-enterprise: simulations of commercial transactions involving documents
11

Yokuwakaru Amime-Kigo Book: Bohbari-ami 120 (Clear and Simple Knitting Symbols) (Nihon Vogue Co., Ltd.,Tokyo, Japan. 1994).

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Relevant Area

Principal Constituentsof DM Skills

Future Plan

CalendarsSociodramasFiling

Knitting
Symbols

Production
by OrderREC:
letters/figuresREC:
letters &numerals

REC/REF:letters &numerals

CON/REF:letters,
numerals &figures

REF:
letters,
numerals &figures

REC/CON/REF:
letters,
numerals &figures*****

Knitting*

WorkshopAdministration***

Microenterprise& Document

**

**

**

*

*

*

**

Table 1: DM Exercises x Relevant Areas of Knitting Course
As a whole, the exercises started from game-like simple ones (like expressing freely Future Plans on
sheets of paper), to more complicated and real-world like ones (Sociodramas), and to difficult ones such as
accepting orders of knit items from the research team members (Production by Order), although the last one wasactually still in the exercise stage (Table 2). All exercises are related with at least one of the above major areasof DM for the knitting course, namely, knitting, workshop administration, and micro-enterprise. The order ofthe presentation roughly follows the order of both the development of DM exercises and the actual
implementation.

Year

1999

Month

8

Main DM
Exercises
Implemented

Hand-knit
Album 1999

2000
11
Future Plan
2000

3

2001
8

11

3

5

8

11

Production
by Order:AcceptingOrders

Production
by Order:Delivery of
Sweaters

Future Plan
2002

Calendar forYear 2000

Sociodrama 1

Sociodrama 2

Future Plan
2001

Calendar for
Apr-Jun
2000

Calendar for
Sep-Oct
2000

Calendar for
Nov-Dec
2000

Calendar for
2001

Evaluationof DM
Exercises

Knitting
Symbols
TryoutTable 2: Implementation Calendar of DM Exercises
From the analytical perspective, the main documents used in those DM exercises can be plotted on thetwo-dimensional coordinate system as below (Figure 4):

Data Collection Procedures
For the data collection of the participants’ DM practices in the exercises, we used several methods as
below:(1) participant observations of DM practices including exercises.
(2) interviews to the participants.
(3) examinations of the documents managed by the participants.
Digital photos were mainly used for the analyses because most documents used in the exercises were given backto the participants for reference in the future.

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SocialReceipts
Order Sheets

Concrete

Production
Memos

Calendars

Abstract

Future Plans
Knitting
Symbols

Individual
Figure 4: Main Documents used in the DM
Exercises from Analytical Perspective

3 Results
3-1 Bilingualism and literacy among the participants
Oral Communication - High fluency in two languages
Interviews with the participants have revealed that they possess rather high fluency in both Spanish andQuechua. Most of them can easily switch between the two languages responding to the requests by the
researchers. We also found that Spanish loanwords in Quechua conversation are more frequent than Quechua
loanwords in Spanish conversation: ex. about 10% of Spanish loanwords in Quechua conversation versus 2 % in
the opposite situation. This fact suggests the overall strong influence of Spanish upon these people12.

Literacy Skills – Poor manipulation of letters
The paper test and the analyses of the texts for Future Plans have revealed that the participants’ literacy
skills are rather poor in comparison with their oral proficiency.
First, only a few of them can be qualified as possessing good skills of literacy. Many sentences hang up
without completion. Furthermore, there are many errors in orthography, concordance, spacing between words
etc. It is interesting to note that they tend to make orthographical errors when asked about conventional
spellings without systematic correspondence with pronunciations in Spanish (ex. división, divición, dibisión).
This tendency suggests that most participants are not accustomed to even seeing Spanish written texts on aregular basis.
Second, the participants’ grammatical competences seem to be less stable in written mode than in oral
mode. For example, when asked to put a set of Spanish words in grammatical order (ex. a mano mejores precios
los tejidos tienen: the correct syntactic order in Spanish is SVO), almost a half of the participants arrange themin the order of Quechua (SOV) or a mixture of Quechua and Spanish (VSO, OVS). This is a rather surprising
result, recalling their high capability of code switching during the interviews.

12

These findings basically fall in line with the views of the precedent studies on linguistic studies on this area (Álbo
1955).

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3-2 DM Exercises
Future Plans
Two notable findings of the Future Plan exercises are:(1) Bipolar distribution of preferences of representational modes: texts or drawings.
While some participants wrote their plans and/or their desires for the future in Spanish prose text without
any drawings, others preferred to make drawings of the knit fabrics they wanted to make without any labeling.
This tendency remained almost unchanged throughout our research project.
(2) Correlation between the preferences for texts and the formal schooling.
The preference for texts above-mentioned is correlated with the prior experience of formal schooling. It
could be reasonably conjectured that more formal schooling nurtures higher tendencies to express more in text
form. Our statistical test shows that the number of words used in the plan is explained by the year in school witha statistically significant and positive coefficient.

Calendars
Most participants had rarely filled out calendars by themselves before, but they picked up how to do it quickly.
Thus, the exercises started to get on smoothly. And yet, it turned out that the participants rarely filled in theirlong-term sequential activity plans in the calendars. In general, they just wrote in their planned days of absencefrom the workshop, and they often did not follow those plans. The only exceptions were seasonal trips to rural
areas for sowing and harvesting.
The main reason for the inactive use of calendars seems to reside in the absence of the long-term complex
activities which would require elaborate planning and coordination in the life in the poor outskirts of the city,rather than the lack of skills to use calendars. In other words, without supporting them to develop plans of, say
production of sophisticated knit items, we can hardly expect just a repetition of calendar exercises to yieldsignificant effects on their DM practices.

Sociodramas
The most important finding of the sociodrama
exercises was the persistence of participants’ confusedhandling of receipts. Many participants failed to fill out
items of the receipts appropriately. In particular, some ofthem did not understand well the format and social
significance of receipts (Photo 8). While blank receipts
were handed over without signature of the issuer insome transactions, the players in the role of client signed
receipts in others. Worryingly, their performance did not
improve much in the second sociodrama session.
One of the reasons for the poor handling ofreceipts seems to lie in the difficulty to imagine the long
cycles the receipts would go through after the firsttransaction. In addition, we suspect that it ispsychologically difficult for Quechua speaking women
to ask for signature to their “social superiors” (theshopkeepers in these cases).

Photo 8: Example of Poorly Filled out
Receipts in Sociodrama Sessions.
Original size: 15.0 cm x 10.5 cm.

Tryout of Knitting Symbols
Although most participants had never seen knitting symbols before, they picked up how to read them very
quickly (see Photo 1, 5 & 6). In particular, it should be noted that several non-schooled women learned themwith much interest and showed better understanding than their more educated peer.
At the same time, it was found that many participants were careless about the minute difference ofknitting symbols, which led to the production of inexact knit patterns. It is not a question of perception,
decoding skills or knitting skills, but of the sensitivity to the value of exactly realizing planned designs.

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Production by Order
Coordination between craft making and DM
In this final exercise, it is highly recommended
to coordinate the knitting process using various
documents such as order memos, order sheets, newhand-knitting reference book and catalogues, andproduction memos. While the participants managed togo through all the paperwork in some ways, theexaminations of the details revealed that few of these
documents were functionally related with the knitting
process.
In particular, the drawings and numericalinformation in the documents were barely consulted
by the knitters (Compare Photo 7 & 9). They
memorized these data by heart, or consulted eachother at each step. They seem to have neglected these
DM procedures, because, for one thing, they could
not count complicated gauges based upon thenumbers provided by the clients, for another, they did
not find it useful to use drawings for dealing withthese tasks.
The poor written arithmetic and drawing skills
can have adverse effects on the finished items,
because some dimensions such as neckline can be indanger of being misaligned from the orders. The
deviance can be easily aggravated if the specifications
are not checked against the data noted in the technicaldocuments. In fact, some parts of most of the finishedsweaters did not fit well the order placed by us (Photo
10).

DM for commercial transactions
Although most participants had alreadypracticed the handling of receipts in sociodrama
sessions, it turned out that some of them still
mishandled receipts. They were particularly confused
about several items such as “Recibe” (“customer” or“sold to”) and “Por concepto de” (“item/description”
or “product”). Thus, it has turned out to be pretty
difficult for them to master how to manage receipts
by just lectures and several exercises.

Photo 9: Example of Drafts (Close Up) in
Order Sheets Made by the Participants for
Production by Order Exercise.
Original size: 6.3 cm x 3.3 cm.

Photo 10: Example of Sweaters Made by theParticipants for Production by Order
Exercise.
Original size: width = 37 cm, length = 36 cm.
Necklines tend to be narrower than specified in
the order memo.
Note also that the shape of armhole isright-angled. The participants could not makedetailed drafts with curbed lines or calculategauge count for the products.

Filing for Future Reference
By the end of the project, the participants’ filers contained more than a dozen of documents used in thevarious DM exercises. And yet, only a few of them went on to use actively their individual filers for theirpersonal purposes.

Participatory Methods and DM Exercises
Participatory methods were actively employed by Kazama and Sra. P. in the knitting course during the
research project. But their facilitations were barely connected with DM practices by other participants in general.
In other words, the explicit effects of participatory methods seemed almost limited to the behavioral aspects ofthe facilitators and participants.

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Therefore, in 2000 we held a session in order to see if the participatory methods and DM exercises could
be integrated in a significant way13. The participants analyzed the social distance between them and different
stakeholders related with the activities of CEMVA by putting various objects on a set of large concentric circles
drawn on the ground, then prepared a petition to the local authorities. At the end of the session, each participant
copied the figure and text to sheets of paper to file in their individual holders.
The session itself went on smoothly enough, and yet, the documents copied by the participants did nothave significant variations each other except for some differences of dexterity. Neither was the copied petitions
refereed to by the participants after the session. There might have been more significant changes, if we could
have spared more energy on this course of activities. And yet, we could not afford it.

3-3 At the End of the ProjectAs a whole, the results of our DM exercises should be qualified as mediocre at most. In particular, it
should be noted that most of the existing practice patterns have not improved significantly throughout the
research project: e.g. poor written arithmetic and drawing skills, reluctance to integrate different visual symbols,
mishandling of receipts, inactive use of filers. And yet, we could notice several signs of sprouting of modest
DM practices among the participants.
First, the use of knitting symbols has almost taken root in the knitting course. Second, participants have begun
to make use of the monthly fee payments as opportunities for practicing how to handle receipts. Last, but notleast, a few of them were recruited as assistant of the workshop, and started to take over DM exercises on theirown initiatives with Sra. P., our trusty facilitator, as the key figure. It was an agreeable surprise, because we had
not expected that the participatory methods and DM exercises could be integrated in such a way.

3-4 Summary of the Findings
The DM exercises have shed light on the current DM practices of the participants of the knitting course
from multiple perspectives.

Uneven distribution of skills of, and preferences for visual symbols among theparticipants
Whereas most participants already possess basic skills of reading and writing Spanish texts, their skills ofwritten arithmetic and drawings are still poor. Correspondingly, they prefer almost always the textual
representational mode to other modes, irrespective of situations. It is interesting to note that the preference for
textual representations tends to correlate with the years of formal schooling.

Lack of cyclical perspectives in the participants’ DM practices
Regardless of the choice of representational modes, the participants’ DM practices tend to occur only withmakeshift visions. First, at the individual level, they barely refer to documents for coordinating their activities in
the workshop, whether the schedules or technical specifications are concerned. At the more social level, the lackof cyclical perspectives can cause serious effects. For example, it has turned out that many participants
mishandled receipts in our DM exercises. More importantly, their repeated failures suggest that it is difficult forthem to realize the significance of receipts by lectures and several exercises.
In brief, most participants master DM skills of concrete nature and for individual purposes rather quickly.
And yet, it seems more difficult for them to master DM skills of more abstract nature and involving social
interactions of larger scales (Figure 5).
13

Cf. REFLECT approach by Actionaid: http://www.reflect-action.org/.

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DfK version 2.3

SocialReceipts
Orde rSheetsConcrete

Production

Calendars

Abstract

Memos
FuturePlans
Knitting
Symbols
Individual
Figure 5: Schematic Summary of the Major Tendencies of
the DM Practices of the Participants in the Knitting Course

3-5 Suggestions for the Future
While our DM exercises served pretty well as
diagnostic tools, their effects as pedagogical tools wererather limited. As a whole, the above tendencies remained
almost persistent throughout the research project. However,
we should also note that at the more micro level we could
notice a few positive outcomes. Thus, the results of theperformances have provided us with several usefulsuggestions for obtaining more fruitful outcomes.

Importance of high-quality documents
One of the most significant outcomes of the DM
exercises was the popularity of knitting symbols among theparticipants. Although the editing process was complicated,time-consuming and required outside helps (such as expertsof knitting, translators, editorial house etc.), the results wereeminently worthy of troubles. The new reference book has
become one of the rare documents constantly referred to in
the knitting course now.

Starting with the DM practices close at home
We think that one of the reasons for the success of theabove reference book was its proximity with theparticipants’ daily activities in the workshop: hand knitting.
In other words, if the contents are not relevant enough totheir daily life, the documents cannot be expected to get into
a constant and dynamic cycle easily. This is especially truefor “illiterate” and “semiliterate” people, because theirconcepts of document cycles are too rudimentary and/orvague to apply to unknown spheres (Figure 5). Thus, policy

19

Photo 11: Front Cover of the New
Hand-Knitting Reference Book, Con
nuestra manos / Makinchiswan.
The models are children of the participantsof the knitting course. They wear, of course,
the sweaters knit by their mothers. See
photo 6 for the main pages. Price =10 Bs.
Original size: 21 cm x 31 cm.

DfK version 2.3

focus in general should have a two-pronged goal: consolidating easily-attained DM skills in concrete andindividual spheres, and developing gradually new DM skills toward abstract and social spheres. Certainly,
well-functioning document communities should have high DM skills in all spheres. But, we believe theconsolidation of easily-attained DM skills is very important.

Hand-knitting as a good entry point for effective DM practices
Hand-knitting is a good entry point for effective DM practices by the poor for a number of reasons suchas low cost, easy to practice, “error proof”, providing multiple opportunities and useful.
If the participants have knitting needles, balls of yarn and a small space to sit down, that’s enough. They canreuse the yarn repeatedly. Furthermore, they do not have to be extremely strict when knitting, because knit
clothe is highly elastic (about 10% in general). Imagine the case of needlework for example. Last, but not least,
their family members can wear the products they finished. It is a nice and lovely advantage, too.

Efforts to link the workshop activities and those outside
A remarkable fact among all the DM exercises is that the handling of documents related with commercial
production (e.g. receipt) has attracted attention of many participants. This is well understandable given thereasons why they come to the workshop: earn money by their craft skills.
In fact, many of them have failed to handle commercial documents repeatedly. These role-play type
exercises have brought to light their weak points that would not be noticeable in ordinary knitting activities in
the workshop. The repeated failure can serve as a hint for setting forth the guidelines for their long-term goals.

Quick feedbacks and constant repetition
As is shown in the results of different DM exercises, the relevance of DM for the participants is notalways direct or simple. One of the crucial points of mature DM practices is the flexibility in dealing with theever-changing situations. In order to acquire the mature DM skills, it is indispensable to go through diverse DM
practices repeatedly, which is difficult for “illiterate” and “semiliterate” people in their daily lives. Trial anderror experiences are very worthwhile. It is very important for them to have chances to fail to handle documents
safely. Therefore, it is highly desirable that DM exercises in NFE institutions be repeated constantly with quick
feedbacks after each exercise.

Limitations of DM exercises
We think that the above-mentioned points are indispensable for effective implementations of DM
exercises in NFE institutions for the poor. And yet, we should bear in mind that there are also several conditions
beyond the control of the local NFE institutions. First, the availability of high-quality documents for the NFE
learners largely depends on the market and policy makers. Our new reference book production should beconsidered as an exceptional attempt for demonstration. Although it is desirable to make further volumes ofreference, it is beyond the capability of ordinary NFE institutions such as CEMVA to produce those documents.
Second, we conjecture that the repeated failures to handle commercial documents by the participants of
the knitting course could be attributed to the social situations such as racial discrimination as well as to theirimmature DM skills. Knowledge of local social structure might be complementary to findings based on DM
practices.
Third, various hazards in the markets are preventing vocational training from culminating in income generation.
In promoting micro enterprise-oriented DM exercises, public policy should pay attention to removing obstacles.
It is certain that DM exercises could eventually result in higher-quality knitting products. But, much remains to
be done for income generation. There is much room for further thought experiments and real experiments before
we understand how DM exercises can lead to successful DM practices in commercial transactions outside of theworkshop.

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Conclusion
In this project, we approached to what are generally called "functional literacy" issues of non-formal
educational sector in Bolivia from the document management (DM) perspective. We think that the concept of
DM is effective in the following aspects.

Diagnostic Tool based on Document Management Perspective
The findings of our research project shed light on the down-to-earth problems of "functionally illiterate"
people from multiple aspects. In the case of the knitting course in CEMVA, we found various problems such as
poor drawing skills, bias toward letter use, lack of long-term document cycles, difficulty in handling contractual
documents. While some of these problems are related to the participants' manual skills and/or the quality of the
documents currently used, others are linked with social dimensions such as poor development of Quechua as
written language, social status of Quechua speaking women.

Learning Tool based on Document Management Perspective
Those above-mentioned findings can be used to improve current non-formal education learning programs
by introducing effective DM exercises. Our approach could focus on operational questions such as what type ofDM practice is beneficial as well as appropriate to a specific livelihood training. In our case of knitting
training, an adequately elaborated knitting manual proved to be a good entry point in welcoming "illiterate"participants in initiating DM. Our case also shows that sociodrama (for example, receipt use) could be a usefulDM exercise in advocating daily DM needs. Apart from the knitting, our approach could reveal what type ofDM practice is suited to each livelihood training.

As such, DM exercises can serve both diagnostic and pedagogical purposes. It does not mean that there is(or will be) an all-purpose manual for DM exercises. In fact, DM exercises are evolutionary. They should beconstantly customized for the particular situations by taking into account the findings from prior exercises. In
our case, the analysis of the existing hand-knit albums has led us to an editing of a new hand-knitting reference
book which was used in the following DM exercises. Some of those exercises such as the use of knitting
symbols have become daily practices among the participants by the end of the project.
Thus, some kinds of document cycle have gradually developed in the knitting course in which various
DM exercises were tested during the course of the research project. Both our research activities and theintegration of several DM exercises with knitting activities by the participants have constituted a highly
complex process of the development of document cycles in the knitting course.
The research project itself came to an end at the end of the year 2001, mainly because of the terminationof funds and non-availability of human resources for further joint research. However, the workshop continues
its activities, so do their document management practices. We can never say that we could fully establish some
useful document management practices in the knitting course. It is partly because of our insufficient capabilities.
However, it is also true that document management practices are an endless process of habituation, obsolesce
and innovation.
The joint research has provided the research team with a number of significant findings and insights thatenrich our understanding of the complexity and dynamism of document management practices in the real world.
We hope that the participants of the knitting course have strengthened their skills and self-confidence formaking their way through this document-flooded world. Almost all the people on earth are faced with the same
situation as they are: we are continuously struggling to acquire particular tools for better life. And, these tools
must function socially. When we develop trust in ourselves and in other people with whom we communicate via
documents, the document management deserves special efforts in acquisition and further elaboration.

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