Research as a Tool for Empowerment: Theory Informing Practice is an edited volume that includes an array of research-based chapters that not only further the field of second/foreign language research, but also provide practical implications to language classrooms in international and national settings. Chapters in this volume present a bridge between methodologically sound second/foreign language research and strong pedagogical implications. This volume includes the voices of researchers, graduate students, teachers, parents, and learners exploring the second/foreign language phenomena. The multiple voices of the contributing authors reflect the diverse readership of the Research in Second Language Learning series. Unlike previous anthologies in second/foreign language research, this volume presents studies from various research paradigms. Chapters include examples of various research methods from both quantitative and qualitative paradigms. Few previous anthologies have presented research based in multiple paradigms and from multiple perspectives. Research as a Tool for Empowerment: Theory Informing Practice not only presents these various perspectives, but it also makes the link from research to classroom implications and applications. The volume is unique as it makes a connection between different types of research and research methods and empowerment and issues of empowerment.

First published in 1994, this book was hailed as a cutting-edge, theory-driven report from the front-line trenches in the battle for social justice. Both clinical and community oriented and written from a global perspective, it presents clients speaking for themselves alongside reports of prominent social work educators. This new edition puts greater emphasis on "how-to" skills in working with people toward their own empowerment and stresses multiculturalism. A new chapter identifies worldwide issues of oppression such as abuse of women and children and neglect of the mentally ill.

The year 2020 brought an unprecedented worldwide health crisis through the COVID-19 pandemic that has been affecting all sectors, including education. There were questions surrounding the effectiveness of online trainings for teachers, online teaching practices, the motivation and engagement of students, and the quality of learning and education in these times. Action research emerged to address these concerns, being a systematic process of inquiry using reflection within a cyclical model of planning, acting, implementing, evaluating, and continuous reflection. This method of research is employed with the expertise and passion from educators to better enhance online practices and education while using authentic learning and experiences. Using collaboration, social advocacy, and action research, there is the opportunity to advance teaching for students, families, and communities without a physical context involved. The Handbook of Research on the Global Empowerment of Educators and Student Learning Through Action Research explores successful teaching and learning skills through the method of action research and intersects it with online learning in order to uncover best teaching practices in online platforms. This book showcases educational professionals’ action research for solutions in advancing teaching and learning, the practical benefits of action research, recommendations for improving online teaching and learning, and a focus on professional growth as well as social justice advocacy. It highlights important topics including student learning, teacher collaboration, authentic learning, advocacy, and action research in both K-12 and higher education settings. This book is ideal for inservice and preservice teachers, administrators, teacher educators, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in how action research is improving and advancing knowledge on the best teaching practices for online education.

Childhood is changing in ways that we are still unpacking, affected by digitalization, globalization and climate change, as well as shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In many OECD education systems, child empowerment is increasingly an explicit aim of policies and practices. But it is often poorly defined, which risks turning it into a mere slogan. With the advancement of children’s rights, children are increasingly being included as stakeholders in decision-making processes. This report gives examples of how children in OECD countries can and do participate in making decisions about issues that affect them. The report examines children's emotional well-being and physical activity, and the role of schools as a physical space to create and support relationships. It also underlines the untapped potential of media education when it comes to seizing opportunities in childhood. Empowering all children to make the most of digital opportunities starts with further narrowing the gap in terms of access to digital tools and the Internet, where inequalities are persistent and pervasive. So, what does child empowerment mean today? Empowered children have the opportunity and ability to act on issues important and relevant to them, can learn by making mistakes, and are key contributors to democracy.

Large-scale poverty reduction depends on the effective empowerment of poor people themselves. This publication sets out a conceptual framework that can be used to monitor and evaluate empowerment programmes, based on papers written by practitioners and researchers in a wide variety of fields, including economics and political science, sociology and psychology, anthropology and demography. These papers draw on research and practical experience at different levels, from households to communities to nations and in various regions of the world.

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,0, Duke University, language: English, abstract: Just a little over ten years ago, the first website became accessible to the public and even though the World Wide Web of today is still in its teens, it has become a phenomenon of virtually global impact. By the mid 1990s, people started to discover the joys of online communication via socalled weblogs or blogs, but blogs really evolved at the turn of the millennium, when the international blogosphere virtually exploded. Anyone could create one, anyone could participate in one, and everyone had at least heard of one. Blogs revolutionized online communication by creating worldwide communities of technology nerds, ambitious writers, and simply those who found an outlet for their exhibitionist tendencies. Decades earlier, in 1981, renowned German philosopher and sociological theorist Jürgen Habermas published his seminal work Theory of Communicative Action, in which he formulates a theoretical framework for societal progress achieved through communication. In the United States of today, progress and the means of communication are inherently White, in fact knowledge and societal power are White. This research is designed to look at the question of democratic empowerment among the Latino minority, this is, whether weblogs provide the Latino immigrant community with means to connect, exchange information, and thus gain social and political influence by the power of knowledge. Is it possible for Latinos in the U.S. to use the medium of weblogs according to Habermas' theory and change the distribution of knowledge and power in American society? Habermas' approach will be described as the theoretical framework for this research paper. It will then be determined how the Latino community in the U.S. could or could not use the weblog as a tool of empowerment.

"Alsop and Heinsohn present an analytic framework that can be used to measure and monitor empowerment processes and outcomes. The measuring empowerment framework, rooted in both conceptual discourse and measurement practice, illustrates how to gather data on empowerment and structure its analysis. The framework can be used to measure empowerment at both the intervention level and the country level, as a part of poverty or governance monitoring. The authors first provide a definition of empowerment and then explain how the concept can be reduced to measurable components. Empowerment is defined as a person's capacity to make effective choices--that is, the capacity to transform choices into desired actions and outcomes. The extent or degree to which a person is empowered is influenced by personal agency (the capacity to make purposive choice) and opportunity structure (the institutional context in which choice is made). Asset endowments are used as indicators of agency. These assets may be psychological, informational, organizational, material, social, financial, or human. Opportunity structure is measured by the presence and operation of formal and informal institutions, including the laws, regulatory frameworks, and norms governing behavior. Degrees of empowerment are measured by the existence of choice, the use of choice, and the achievement of choice. Following the conceptual discussion and the presentation of the analytic framework, the authors show how the measuring empowerment framework can be applied using examples from four development interventions. Each example discusses how the framework guided analysis and development of empowerment indicators. They also present a draft module for measuring empowerment at the country level. The module can be used alone or be integrated into country-level poverty or governance monitoring systems that seek to add an empowerment dimension to their analysis. This paper--a product of the Poverty Reduction Group, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network--is part of a larger effort in the network to conceptualize, operationalize, and measure empowerment"--Abstract.

The constantly evolving digital world must be used in the practice of medicine to improve the care of patients. However, the only way to do so effectively is via evidence-based, meaningful and strategic use. Empowering the Connected Physician in the E-Patient Era provides practical guidance in this mission and is thus essential reading for all health stakeholders looking into approaching this. Drawing on the author’s research and consulting practice, as well as on the practical experience of managers in medium-large organizations worldwide, the book will provide a proven framework to improve the development and implementation of physicians’ empowering digital programs in these organizations, a step-by-step guide for how companies can develop and implement programs aiming at empowering physicians while empowering patients. It is an engaging how-to/how-not-to book which will include tips, advice and critical reviews that every stakeholder must have in order to participate in the evolving healthcare system and be more active in making strategic patient-centered choices. This book will help healthcare organizations chart a course within this new territory and thereby improve their ability to engage with empowered patients.

Since the 1960s and 1970s century, the women's movements and women's studies have been beginning to rise throughout the world. In the past several decades, the status of women has been greatly improved. All the writings contain valuable insights highlighting the idea of feminism and trace the different forms it has taken in the countries under consideration. The book, specially has the concerns on: various aspects of feminism and queries of paradigm shift in women studies. The comprehensive coverage of the activities of women in numerous sectors and also hints at feminization of labour as well as household activities, conflict zones and environment in our society. A book to further reading in the light of the documents consulted and used in the chapters which may be a foundation for any serious researcher on women in the development process.