Empowerment and Education

Empowerment and education are interrelated concepts. Education is the process by which individuals acquire knowledge, learn skills, and develop attitudes and beliefs for living. Empowerment is a teaching principle for enabling pupils to make independent judgments and direct their behaviors toward ends that are personally rewarding and socially acceptable. This entry describes how educators combine education and empowerment into an instructional approach to benefit all pupils, regardless of differences in ability, class, culture, language, nationality, race, religion, sex, and sexual orientation. Then, the theoretical bases of education and empowerment are described through the ideas of U.S. educator John Dewey (1859–1952) and Brazilian educator Paulo Freire (1921–1997).

Individuals are educated through their experiences. They acquire knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs via their experiences, planned and unplanned. Most ...