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21

and grades is substituted by placing a high value on cooporation and success of the group effort as a whole, while at the same time allowing for individual achievement.

The group project is an ideal format for women to confront not only the problems that arise in working collaboratively but also those connected with their independent work. The two issues which surface specifically around collaboration, are women's fears of loosing their identity -- to someone else or to the group-- and of taking over and imposing their identity on others or on the group.  Most women experience both at various stages of the project.  The group project allows the women to work collaboratively, individually, and in a combination of the two.  Individual work and collaboration are integrated to several degrees and exist in several modes in feminist education.  In fact, the forms and modes of collaboration have themselves been subject to exploration and invention by women at the F.S.W.  We view collaboration in a broad and multiple sense, not simply as a group of artists all painting on the same canvas or mural, for example.  A sense of collaboration [[strikethrough]] my [[/strikethrough]] may develop around preparing an exhibition, or a public event, if an important part of the process includes a group interaction around decision making, actual work, and it is all done towards a shared goal. For instance, one woman who had been an organizer for the Farm Workers Union before she came to the F.S.W., and who continued to see herself as an organizer, participated in the collaboration of the group by being in charge of all organizational aspects of the public event and the opening.  The writers wove their individual writings -- writings which had been reworked numerous times with the group's input -- into one coherent reading presentation.