In light of the ideal form of participation, the crucial question for facilitators is how to support people to reach the top rungs of the ladder of participation, becoming effective leaders and empowered individuals with their social groups, communities and societies as a whole. Since the possibilities for participation are related to power, the fundamental didactical approach we promote is empowerment.
Definition
Empowerment is a process of promoting (and self-empowerment a process of aquiring) competences for public social activity, cooperative organization, and involvement in public decision-making. It deals with questions like:
- How do you gain power?
- How do you use power?
- How do you shape power relations?
- How can you influence socially relevant conversations and decisions?
Addressing self-responsibility and autonomy
On an individual level empowerment is feeling, accepting, and using one’s individual power in terms of self-responsible independent action. In education and training it can be understood as a process of gaining competencies for public social activity, cooperative self-organization, and involvement in any public decision-making.
Collaboration and Cooperation
Empowerment can happen at different stages of an initiative, project, or organizational development and can be manifested in various ways. When empowering people we:
- shape opportunities for them to take responsibility
- help them to gain key competences required for completing certain tasks and challenges, concrete civic competences
- advocate for a better quality of participation
- organize learning processes according to modern didactical principles
Articles on Power and Empowerment
Power is the ability to actively influence the decision-making capacity of an individual, a group, or a whole society and to affect the way relevant socio-political topics are discussed among citizens.
Participation refers to the different mechanisms people use to express their opinions and to influence the decision-making that takes place in different spheres (political, social, economic, etc.) and at different social levels.
Facilitating is a new understanding of the role of a teacher or instructor aligned to competency centered learning. Facilitators create the right conditions for individuals to form knowledge and skills in a self-directed way, according to their specific needs. Facilitation is perceived as a central aspect of empowerment.
Empowerment equips participants with the competencies needed to make an impact in their communities as a group. Cooperative learning is an approach which supports this by encouraging group interaction in the learning process.
Let’s face it: inspiring teachers, facilitators, and other people are not the only reason why students and participants get socially involved. People have many different reasons for working for the social good – psychological advantages, internalized values, social norms, or (in)direct profit.
Motivation
Motivation is vital to self-directed learning, the intrinsic joy in doing well - when we want to achieve something for the resulting personal satisfaction alone. A person’s motivation corresponds to available resources and to his or her own personal needs: The key to intrinsic motivation is the achievement of self-actualization.
When Self-actualization relates directly to learning this is an incredible feeling. In some situations people encounter great excitement when they leave their comfort zones and face new challenges - a flow.
Becoming an active individual is an intense emotional process. On the one hand, it’s playful and inspiring; on the other it’s connected to feelings such as uncertainty, anxiety, disappointment, and sometimes frustration. Empowerment prepares learners for facing the positive and negative aspects of becoming active, self-responsible, or exposing themselves toward the public.
Facilitators and their participants have personal preferences that influence their motivation. Michael J. Apter has identified specific motivational profiles and advocates for consciously experiencing a big variety of different motivations which makes people become more resilient against de-motivation.
Teachers and facilitators already have the potential and capacity to inspire others without needing to make much additional effort or start new projects. Let’s take a closer look at the various possibilities.
The way that we talk about our initiatives or projects is another way to be inspirational and motivational without being explicit. When people talk about their work, they usually start by answering the question, “What do I do?” and “How am I different from others?” More important ist to get to the core question, “Why am I doing this?”
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Understanding
Empowerment is a process of gaining competencies for public social activity, cooperative selforganization and involvement in any public decision-making.
