This paper examines the link between language and power as it relates to program evaluation of the Brisbane School of Distance Education. This program was developed in 1989 to meet the educational needs of children who are part of the Showmen's Guild of Australasia. Guild members and their families travel from town to town putting on agricultural and equestrian shows. As part of program evaluation, interviews were conducted with parents, children, home tutors, and itinerant teachers. Interpretation of interview data was affected by relationships between the Showmen's Guild and the School of Distance Education, between the Guild and the researchers, and between the School and the researchers. It was found that in each relationship, language was used in an attempt to exercise power, by way of controlling the constructed identities that represent each group to "the public." Other noteworthy factors in these relationships include difficulties establishing communication among the three groups due to the mobility of Guild members, the ambiguous status of individuals within each group, and the coinciding and competing aspirations of researchers. Based on communication theories, this paper suggests that language reinforces the power to control responses of readers or listeners, that power is differentiated and mediated through language, and that all three groups involved in the study attempted to enhance their cultural capital and thereby become less marginalized in the wider community. (LP)