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 societies do not leave the individual's education solely to unplanned, chance experiences but provide formal, planned experiences, mainly through schools. Thus, pupils are formally educated in the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs approved by their society.

Formal education evokes the notion that knowledge brings power, or having knowledge leads directly to accomplishments. However, knowing something is one thing; using knowledge toward meaningful ends is another. Education, then, can be said to be empowering when education and empowerment are combined into an interactive teaching and learning approach—pedagogy—succinctly stated as “educating that is empowering.” As an interactive pedagogy, its purpose is liberation from passive living toward active individuality.

John Dewey proposed interactive pedagogy aimed at enabling individuals to develop “reflective habits of mind” and reach their own conclusions. Rather than memorizing the meaning of codified knowledge provided by authorities, which often occurs in formal education, Dewey suggested ways for pupils to construct their own meaning and interpretations of the knowledge codified by authorities. These were (a) supposition: formulation of a hypothesis, gathering and analyzing data, and drawing inferences; and (b) reflection: identification of a problem, analysis of its causes, and presentation of solutions.

Paulo Freire sought pedagogy to free the subjugated, poor people in Brazil prior to 1985 when dictators ruled the country. Under dictatorial regimes, individuals are taught to believe the dogma of the ruling class and follow the dictates of [Page 776]political, religious, and school authorities. Freire called their pedagogy the “banking method,” where authorities deposited dogma in the minds of pupils, to be accepted without question. Under such regimes, pupils are indoctrinated and not encouraged to think independently or to define their individuality and understand their subjugated positions in society. They are dominated by the consciousness of the ruling class. Freire proposed replacing the banking method by assisting individuals to develop a critical consciousness—that is, the capacity to understand one's reality, make meaning about that reality, and transform that reality. His interactive approach encouraged students to question the teacher.

Both Dewey and Freire believed that education that is empowering would enable individuals to construct meaning from experiences and codified knowledge and then act on that construction. Both shared the assumption that individuals could learn to think and do for themselves, regardless of differences in ability, class, culture, language, nationality, race, religion, sex, and sexual orientation.

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