Claiming power by producing knowledge: the empowering potential of PAR in the classroom |
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| Authors: | Meagan Call-Cummings |
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| Institution: | Graduate School of Education, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA |
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| Abstract: | The purpose of this article is to explore the concept of empowerment, reframing it in critical terms and in a precise and useful way. I approach this exploration through two participatory action research studies. Why are our teachers racist? took place over an 18-month period from 2012 to 2014 at a mid-sized high school in a rural dairy town in Idaho with 52 Latino/a students and their white teacher. Who can do research? was conducted in the fall of 2013 with a group of 60 pre-service teachers at a large university in the Midwest of the United States. Through the application of lessons learned from these two studies, I frame critical empowerment as a process whereby historically marginalized and oppressed individuals and groups can potentially lay claim to power as they/we engage in participatory approaches to knowledge production, thereby gaining control over processes by which we as a society determine what is useful and valuable knowledge. |
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| Keywords: | Participatory action research empowerment education policy |
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