A project in British Columbia, Canada, explored a deeper understanding of what it would be like to become literate and probed how that experience related to the life of the educator. The phenomenological study began with a literature search. It focused on and explored the stories of three adult learners, using the journals of two and extrapolating the teacher's own interpretation of a third learner's story as told to the teacher and to others. One learner's story offered an understanding of the personal, inward search for meaning. A second learner's story demonstrated that teachers could not always win; sometimes the learner would not be ready. The third learner's story led the teacher on a public crusade against illiteracy. Through dialogue, reflection, and identification of themes, the teacher sought to discover the meaning of literacy as it was understood by both teacher and learners. The final part of the project was a reflection by the teacher on the journey toward this deeper, pedagogical understanding. Appendixes contain a list of 19 references, a 30-item bibliography, and a response by Paul Gallagher given at the literacy symposium, Research on Literacy: Local and International Perceptives (British Columbia, Canada, October 5, 1990). (YLB)