Elaborates on Foucault's analysis of how sovereign power has been replaced by disciplinary power exercised by people on themselves and others. Urges adult educators to be aware of power, especially in the apparently beneficent participatory practices they intend to be empowering for learners. (Contains 20 references.) (SK)

Older people who suffer from a sense of powerlessness, helplessness, and low self-esteem are inadequately helped by existing services. A community work approach can help them become active and empowered individuals with stronger contacts with the community. (SK)

Interviewed 41 high risk adolescents to examine the link between the process of empowerment and mental health. Respondents demonstrated how aspects of power that enhance the construction of health-promoting identities form a base for personal and social resilience in youth. Participants in the study articulated the interdependence between their…

The 16th recipient of the Kurt Hahn Award reflects on the lack of female role models in experiential and outdoor education during her youth and early professional career; describes the contributions of Laura Mattoon, Juliette Low, and Abbie Graham; and outlines the ways in which these three educators modeled inclusion and empowerment practices in…

A 2-year ethnographic study of a clubhouse for people with long-term mental illness involved club members in particpatory research. The study explored questions of what is research and who drives it. A critical perspective on the social organization of knowledge and power inequities between participants was highlighted. (SK)

This paper comments on three preceding papers in the same publication on the general topic of self-determination for adults with severe disabilities. Self-determination is discussed as a movement requiring major changes in culture, values, and support in the general direction of partnership and inclusion, including a more accessible approach to…

Career and technical educators (n=827) completed measures of empowerment in terms of decision making, professional growth, status, self-efficacy, autonomy, and impact. Decision making rated lowest. Significant differences appeared according to teaching area (agriculture, business, family/consumer, industrial, marketing) and educational level…

Accepting that few lists are comprehensive, but acknowledging that they still have value, here then are seven important factors that contribute to a healthy school climate: (1) Models: Adults are teachers in more ways than one, and the way that has the greater impact is less what they say than what they do; (2) Consistency: The school staff must…

This article written by a man with an intellectual disability, describes his experiences living with the label, "intellectually handicapped". Institutionalized at an early age, he relates the loneliness, isolation, and homesickness he experienced, and learned to accept. At the age of 7 he was placed in foster care, and forced to work as an adult.…

The processes behind many adventure education programs remain poorly documented, and how development is fostered through adventure is not well understood. While a number of theory-based articles do exist, little empirical research has been available to influence experiential education program design. This study explores the roles that participant…

This article describes a stage-based model of leadership identity development (LID) that resulted from a grounded theory study on developing a leadership identity (Komives, Owen, Longerbeam, Mainella, & Osteen, 2005). The LID model expands on the leadership identity stages, integrates the categories of the grounded theory into the LID model, and…

Adrian C. Lewis asked the author if he could write a poem using their e-mail conversation. That ordinary conversation was the source of the poem that came about as a result. And the poetry--a major voice of literature, especially Indigenous literature--came about simply as an act of community, simply as an act of empowerment.

This study looked at how six infants in a group child care setting produced and appreciated humor. With the use of multiple qualitative methods, participant and non-participant observations, journal writing, videotaping, interviewing, and document review this study looked at children's humor as indicated through their smiles and laughter. Findings…

An opportunity exists for those working with older adults in nursing homes to significantly encourage independence in the older adult using a creative approach. The use of folklore is suggested as a means for assisting the older adult toward a reconnection with the individuation process.

In "The Haunting," "The Changeover," and "The Tricksters," Margaret Mahy fuses supernatural iconography of witchcraft and magic with images of ordinary and domestic adolescence. This article argues that Mahy's "fantastic realism" illuminates aspects of female teenage experience through a blend of myth, fairy tale, folklore and history, as well as…