From Competendo - Digital Toolbox
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 competences for public social activity, cooperative organization, and involvement in public decision-making. Self-empowerment is a process of acquiring these competences.
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?
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.
Articles
Power and Participation
Empowerment in the context of Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education has the goal to enable citizens for claiming their rights, acting in the public, involving in discussions or decision-making, and living and acting according to democratic values.
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.
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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.
