The theory of empowerment: A critical analysis with the theory evaluation scale

Joseph, Rigaud

doi:10.1080/10911359.2019.1660294

Cited by 57 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 106 publications

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“…A study of an empowerment and advocacy programme in the United Kingdom with caregivers argued that insufficient attention is given to the social, cultural and familiar contexts and other structural issues that can limit the capacity to change (Fazil et al 2004 ). Despite the popularity of the term, with some exceptions (Joseph 2020 ), it continues to not receive much critical attention.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Illuminating the empowerment journey of caregivers of children with disabilities: Understanding lessons learnt from Ghana

Zuurmond

Seeley

Shakespeare

et al. 2020

African Journal of Disability

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Background Empowerment is an increasingly popular goal, considered core to a transformative agenda for children with disabilities and their families. However, it can still be a poorly understood concept in practice. Objective This article is an empirical analysis of the ‘empowerment journeys’ of caregivers participating in a community-based training programme in Ghana. Method In-depth interviews were conducted with 18 caregivers at three time points over 14 months. Thematic analysis was conducted on the full data set, with three representative case studies selected for more detailed analysis to illustrate the dynamism of time and context in shaping the empowerment journey. Results Our findings illuminate the complexity and non-linearity of the caregiver empowerment journey. There were important gains in individual dimensions of power and the nascent emergence of collective power, through improved knowledge and valuable peer support from group membership. However, further gains were impeded by their limited influence over wider economic and sociopolitical structural issues that perpetuated their experiences of poverty, stigma and the gendered nature of caregiving. The support group facilitator often played a valuable brokering role to help traverse individual agency and structural issues. Conclusion A richer and more nuanced understanding of caregiver empowerment in the community and family context can inform the wider discourse on disability. Guidelines on working with people with disabilities, and the role of empowerment, should not neglect the pivotal role of caregivers. There are important lessons to be learnt if we want to improve family-centred interventions and transform the lives of children with disabilities.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Illuminating the empowerment journey of caregivers of children with disabilities: Understanding lessons learnt from Ghana

Zuurmond

Seeley

Shakespeare

et al. 2020

African Journal of Disability

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“…Several authors (Bordy et al, 2015;Carrasco et al, 2016;Teddlie et al, 2009;Cyril et al, 2015;Joseph, 2019) apply combined, qualitative-quantitative evaluation methods. A positive example of mixed methods research is Social Accounting and Auditing: stakeholders' stories are used to describe the outcomes of the project (Jupp et al, 2010).…”

Section: Mixed Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Participants may interpret it differently from the beginning of an intervention to its later stages (Jupp et al, 2010). Empowerment scored 4 out of 5 in testability on the Theory Evaluation Scale, which means that even if evaluation has some limitations, such studies are feasible (Joseph, 2019).…”

Section: The Challenges and Principles Of Evaluating Empowermentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most of the resources that I have covered uses quantitative measures for evaluating empowerment outcomes, generally using surveys in a longitudinal study. Qualitative studies apply ethnographic, narrative and phenomenologist approaches, or case studies (Joseph, 2019). Zimmerman (1995) proposes mixed methods research.…”

Section: Available Tools Of Evaluating Empowerment Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evaluation approaches to empowering interventions

Vojtek

2021

SzocSzem

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Empowerment has been a widespread term since the 1990s and is common in contexts as social work, community development, psychology, medicine, and several other areas of human development and health. Empowerment is a process during which a person, an organization, or a community is enabled to identify themselves, to recognize their own power positions and to improve their unequal social situations (Varga, 2017). The evaluation of empowerment outcomes has been missing from the Hungarian professional literature. This review article focuses on the empowerment of adults through educational theatre and drama, and is based on the analysis of previous research results in the area. Empowerment is a multi-level, context-dependent construct, hence, evaluating empowerment outcomes is challenging. Theorists of empowerment warn against creating a general instrument for measurement (Zimmerman, 1995). I reflect on quantitative, qualitative, and combined evaluation methods, such as the Psychological Empowerment Scale (Akey et al., 2000), the Empowerment Evaluation (Fetterman, 2001), and the Empowerment Measuring Tool (Jupp et al., 2010), also taking Wandersman and associates’ (2005) principles for empowerment evaluation into account.

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“…But education is not the single element in empowering theory. It includes every strategy and strength that constructs a competitive and proactive individual (Joseph, 2020). Sharma (2007) discussed the components of women's empowerment like the involvement of women in decision-making seeking their worth, the status of a woman in the house and autonomy for the choice at their homes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Into the Civic life: The Nexus of Urbanization, Education and Women’s Empowerment in Pakistan

Abdullah¹,

Shoukat²,

Chaudhary

2021

iRASD J. Eco.

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Women comprise nearly 50 percent of the population of Pakistan which is enriched with a variety of regional, cultural, and ethnic values. These values are traditionally responsible for limiting opportunities for women and keeping them less empowered. This study examines the link between education and urbanization that is empowering women in Pakistan. Time series data for the period of 1980 to 2019 has been used for empirical analysis. The stationarity of data has been checked by using the ADF unit root test. All the variables used in the study have a unit root at the level and become stationary at first difference. Johansen's co-integration technique is utilized to check the long-run relationship between the variables used in the study. Instead of using any single variable, we have constructed the Women Empowerment Index (WEI) by using multiple women-related indicators for in-depth analysis. Empirical findings indicate that women's empowerment is positively associated with education and urbanization in Pakistan. Other controlled variables include domestic credit with a positive association and inflation with a negative association. The study shows that empowering women is sensitive to urbanization and education. There must be women-specific educational and training institutions across the country with a special focus on rural areas for equal availability of opportunities for women of all cultures. Urbanization provides greater social, economic and political opportunities for women. Same opportunities should be provided for women in rural areas to make them more empowered. Moreover, control of inflation and the provision of credit on easy terms will also help to enhance women's contribution to economic activity in Pakistan.

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The theory of empowerment: A critical analysis with the theory evaluation scale

Cited by 57 publications

References 106 publications

Illuminating the empowerment journey of caregivers of children with disabilities: Understanding lessons learnt from Ghana

Illuminating the empowerment journey of caregivers of children with disabilities: Understanding lessons learnt from Ghana

Evaluation approaches to empowering interventions

Into the Civic life: The Nexus of Urbanization, Education and Women’s Empowerment in Pakistan

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