Transformation through training: application of emancipatory methods in a housing education programme for rural women in South Africa

Abstract

The role of education in the development of communities has been receiving increasing attention from the South African Government. The purpose of this study was to determine how community developers could contribute to transformative learning in community groups. Using an emancipatory teaching approach, a housing education programme was presented to a group of women who had recently been allocated subsidized housing in a rural Northern Cape town in South Africa. During the implementation of the housing intervention, the emancipatory method encouraged participants to question and alter their distorted assumptions. Guidelines are provided for community developers for applying the emancipatory teaching method to facilitate transformative learning.

Australian Indigenous community development: making the link between community development training and community development practice

“…Each course develops "Knowledge and practice of facilitative styles of leadership that empower others" (Wontulp Bi-Buya College, 2010). Empowerment strategies applied in Indigenous Australian settings increase people's abilities to manage disease, adopt healthier lifestyles, use health services more effectively, and exert control over the factors that shape their health and well-being (Tsey et al, 2010). It is therefore the goal of WBBC to produce graduates who possess the characteristics of the empowered person.…”

“…They are confident and motivated to make life better for themselves and for those around them. At the wider community level, empowered people are leaders who share an empathy and a capacity to work with others towards common goals (Tsey et al, 2010;Wontulp Bi-Buya College, 2013). The power of education to change individual's prospects, life expectations, health, and living standards has long been established (Bell, Boughton, & Bartlett, 2004;Hunter, 1997Hunter, , 2007.…”

“…The concept of empowerment is also linked to education. Individual learning, when based on a process of critical reflection on experience, is vital to individual change, altering one's capacity and transforming lives (Forrest, 1999;Taylor, 2008;van der Merwe & Albertyn, 2010). In the field of community development, adult education and training is an activity that can be driven by the empowered, and can empower others.…”

“…These ideological constructs resonate powerfully with Indigenous Australians' desire to be self-determining. In Australia, a lack of control or mastery has long been acknowledged as one aspect of a broader experience of powerlessness that needs to be addressed (Tsey et al, 2010). It is therefore useful to define empowerment as a multi-level construct that involves people assuming control and mastery over their lives in the context of their social and political environment; they gain a sense of control and purposefulness as they participate in the democratic life of their community for social change.…”

“…The FWB was designed to enhance the capacity of Indigenous Australians to more effectively address the social determinants of their health. It is a program that builds the capacity of individuals and their family groups to understand and deal with personal issues such as emotions, relationships, conflicts, grief, and loss resulting from such processes as colonization, including the Stolen Generations (Tsey et al, 2010). The use of personal experience, as a basis for learning, has been a highly effective strategy to create awareness of the issues participants and facilitators are dealing with.…”