Empowerment Perspective
The founder of empowerment perspective
Who was Paulo Freire?
Dialogue is fostered among those in the struggle to bring knowledge, contribute knowledge, and develop knowledge together
What is "Popular Education"?
She did pioneering work on the role of social workers in the empowerment of African Americans and other oppressed populations.
Who is Barbara Solomon?
She Focused on empowerment among women of color, but also contributed greatly to general empowerment practice in social work.
Who was Lorraine Gutiérrez?
This person criticizes the oppressive nature of traditional social work practice and the use of individual deficit models.
Steven Rose
The ability to get what one needs; the ability to influence how others think, feel, act, or believe; and the ability to influence the distribution of resources in a social system such as a family, organization, community, or society.
What is power?
Structural and systemic forces
What is the focus of the empowerment perspective?
The development of critical awareness of one’s social reality through reflection and action.
What is conscientization?
A process whereby the social worker or other helping professional engages in a set of activities with the client aimed at reducing the powerlessness stemming from the experience of discrimination because the client belongs to a stigmatized collective.
What is empowerment practice?
This model incorporates (a) a historic perspective, (b) an ecological view, (c) an ethclass perspective, (d) a multicultural perspective, (e) a feminist perspective, (f) a global perspective, and (g) a critical perspective.
What is the “multifocal vision” of empowerment?
This person advocated for the channeling of one’s professional energies toward historically disempowered groups and individuals.
Barbara Levy Simon
Power of decision-making. Granted through formal rules, structures, institutions, authorities, and decision-makers within a society.
What is visible power?
The concept that society consists of stratified groups that possess different and unequal levels of power and control of resources.
Social stratification
The continuous cycle of reflection, planning, and action.
What is Praxis?
These decrease the individual’s power to deal effectively with problems that arise in the course of life.
What are power blocks?
An individual’s feelings and perceptions about their ability to influence and resolve their own issues. Practice assists individuals in identifying source of powerlessness and redefining self using strengths perspective. Involves increasing awareness of negative valuations and indirect/direct power blocks.
What is personal empowerment?
Acknowledging the “social being of the client,” and accepting the clients’ definition of themselves, their circumstances, and their needs within their particular context.
What is contextualization?
Power to set the political agenda. Power is held by those who use their authority to set the political agenda and influence the decision-making processes.
What is hidden power?
Ideas drawn from sociology, economic and political theory, liberation ideology, and the social work tradition
What are the influences of empowerment theory?
The result of dominant social relations that instills a negative, silenced, and suppressed self-image in oppressed persons.
What is the “Culture of silence”?
When negative valuations are applied directly by agents of our major social institutions.
What are direct power blocks?
Observed in experiences with other people that facilitate problem resolution. Practice assists families, groups, and communities in developing strengths, reducing isolation, and creating solidarity/mutual help.
What is interpersonal empowerment?
According to Steven Rose, THIS is a client-centered shared dialogue provides the client with a range of possibilities to meet their needs (rather than a cookie-cutter or limited option menu of services.
What is empowerment?
Power to shape meaning and perception. Power is granted through the socialization processes, cultural norms, and ideologies that dictate what is acceptable within society.
What is invisible power?
Power, social stratification, and oppression create structural barriers that prevent individuals, groups, institutions, and communities from accessing resources necessary for health, well-being, and full potential
What is the main assumption of the empowerment perspective?
The belief that students are “empty vessels” to be filled by the teacher.
What is the "banking approach" to learning?
These occur throughout person’s developmental process and mediated by significant others.
What are indirect power blocks?
Assist individuals, groups, and communities develop knowledge/skills in challenging social structural obstacles and inadequate resources and affecting political processes (e.g., community organizing & development, social policy analysis, and political advocacy).
What is Environmental/Political/Institutional empowerment?
People are brought together to participate in collective consciousness raising and achieve both individual and social transformation.
What is collectivity?
A group’s belief in their ability to act together to succeed in caring out a task or reaching a goal.
What is Collective-Efficacy?