Many adult literacy organizations use a one-on-one model of instruction where the organization recruits and trains tutors who then meet with assigned learners for regular one-on-one learning sessions. Tutors will help learners plan and work towards their goals, and they act as partners in the learning process. While some research is available on the adult learners in such programs, few studies, to date, have examined what their tutors believe about literacy and how their beliefs affect the learner-tutor matches.

This study began with the assertion that tutors are important actors in the tutor-learner relationship, and that their beliefs and behaviour will affect the tutoring relationship. A better understanding of how and why tutors act in certain ways will help the volunteer programs improve training and support for their volunteers and could ultimately improve the quality of tutoring.

Although a few studies have been done on tutors, most are outdated (Charnley & Jones, 1978; Trabert, 1986). Several recent studies have addressed the roles of tutors in literacy organizations. Aaron (1997) highlights the need for more tutor support in Montreal-area literacy organizations. Sanders, Reine, Devins and Wiebe (1996) explore how applying 50/50 Management principles (DuPrey, 1992) allowed them to maintain a balance between intake and support functions in their organization. Hayes (1996) and D'Annunzio (1994) show how a literacy tutoring placement for university student tutors in a credit course makes a positive impact on the learners and on the students' own personal development. Newman (1993) documents how university student tutors reproduce "teacher" roles when tutoring becomes difficult. These studies represent important progress in our understanding of tutors, and this study builds on this foundation by examining a central concern of many literacy organizations: how to support tutors when many tutors do not keep in close contact with their organization.

Many volunteer tutors in one-on-one literacy programs do not keep in close contact with their training agency, nor do they rely on the support system available to them. While this is not true of all tutors, nor of all programs, it is a common phenomenon. This study associates this behaviour, which will be referred to as tutors "distancing themselves" from their organization, with a system of beliefs that influences a tutor to work independently of the organization, whether or not the match is proceeding well. This relationship between beliefs and behaviour surfaced in a case study of one volunteer literacy program and thus cannot be generalized to other programs. However, the pervasiveness of the beliefs among the tutor participants and the nature of the beliefs suggest that it could be present in other programs. Further research on this topic is necessary.