What is Empowerment Rationale

This chapter defines empowerment, describes an empowerment rationale for new media literacy, and articulates a schema for empowering curriculum design. Empowerment is all about control, and an empowered person has mastered the arena in which he/she is operating. Using an empowerment rationale as a basis for designing curricula ensures a focus on mastering critical concepts and developing confidence in the student’s ability to create solutions. An empowering curriculum design centers on essential skills, plans small steps, ensures success in mastery experiences, and requires reflection to make connections. The author argues that an increasing level of new media literacy is required for citizens in a global community to contribute to the growing online participatory cultures such as MySpace and YouTube, and there is too much to learn in times of exponential change. These factors are driving the need for educators to focus on empowerment as the underlying principle for curriculum design.