Power: the ability to act or produce an effect. Correct? The belief that knowledge is power is widely shared and attributed to sources like Francis Bacon (1591), Thomas Jefferson, who equated it with power, safety, and happiness, and other more recent writers and thinkers. Is knowledge power? Does it create the ability to act or produce an effect in a way that ignorance cannot?
ERIC has interesting paper on power, “Power and Authority in Adult Education,” by Mohammed Fahad Alsobaie (Journal of Education and Practice, v6 n15 p155-159 2015). Alsobaie discusses power vs. authority, describing three kinds of authority types: interventionists (believe that they must be highly involved with the education of their students and thus “intervene” to a high degree when they are in positions of authority), noninterventionists (believe students should be allowed to regulate their own behavior), and internationalists (believe regulation of behavior and stimuli are a partnership between teachers and students and so they incorporate elements of both philosophies. The author recommends “that teachers in adult education pursue power that is rewards and expert- based, as well as authority that is noninterventionist, internationalist, goal-oriented, and apprenticed authority types.
You are invited to reflect and comment on the following questions:
- Do you believe that knowledge is power? Is there a better way of expressing the contributions made by knowledge to an individual?
- In our day and age, do we consider that digital competency is power as well? Do they go together?
- Where do you fall among the definitions of authority described by Alsobaie? When you believe that you have failed to engage a student, do you feel powerless?
- Student empowerment has become a popular expression to define the higher purpose of Adult Eduction. Do students become empowered by acquiring knowledge and digital skills?
- Would it be useful and revealing to ask our students to reflect on and then discuss, read about, and then write about power in their lives? If so, what reading sources would you recommend for low-level readers on the topic?
Leecy Wise, Moderator
LINCS Reading and Writing CoP