Pillar 4: Empowering Engagement Across History
"What is the purpose of a nation if not to empower human beings to live better together than they could individually? Each of us has something significant to contribute to society be it physical, material, intellectual, emotional, or spiritual." - John Lewis
Throughout our history we see efforts to engage with the systems in place, pushing towards progress in various areas of our lives.
Below we'll look into the historical background for several aspects of this pillar, namely within education (critical pedagogy) and our communities (civic engagement).
Education Engagement
Originating from Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, Critical Pedagogy encourages students and instructors to challenge commonly accepted assumptions that reveal hidden power structures, inequities, and injustice in society. Students are seen as active participants in the classroom, and students, alongside teachers, have power. Critical pedagogy encourages active learning and dialogue to empower students.
Addressing Power and Privilege
A large aspect of Critical Pedagogy is influenced by feminist pedagogy, anti-racist pedagogy, and inclusive pedagogy. It challenges everyone to recognize systems and patterns of oppression within society and education itself. Part of this requires students and educators to reflect on their place within the societal structures of power and privilege. A goal of Critical Pedagogy is to create solidarity and effective liberatory praxis by empowering those who are traditionally oppressed and for those with privilege to empathize with, commit to, and actively participate in the social justice struggles of the oppressed. Addressing the requires everyone to reflect on their identities, including their intersectionality, and how that influences our views of the world around us.
Civic Engagement
In 1947, the Truman Commission report on Higher Education defined three principal goals for higher education:
- Education for a fuller realization of democracy in every phrase of living;
- Education directly and explicitly for international understanding and cooperation; and
- Education for the application of creative imagination and trained intelligence to the solution of social problems.
In order to address the realization of democracy colleges and universities aim to help educate and empower students as citizens and promote civic engagement. Below we've included videos and visuals to help grasp Civic Engagement.
Various types of Civic Engagement:
Participating in Civic Engagement and how it creates change in our world can be understood through a cycle:
Utilizing Non Violence
Empowering engagement can be seen as an action or actions that are intentionally chosen to illicit a response or call to action. During the Civil Rights movement, leaders and organizers used different strategies to address a range of different issues. Some of the more common well known strategies were Non Violence tactics, including sit-ins, strikes, marches and freedom rides.
198 Methods of Nonviolent Action extracted from the appendix in Gene Sharp
Gene Sharp's collection of 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action (The Methods of Nonviolent Action, 1973):
Additional Examples of Tactics
Moving Forward
Ahead, you will get a historical look at how John R. Lewis exemplified empowering engagement.