research

Whendi holds a Ph.D. in Applied Social Science & Liberatory Education from Lancaster University, U.K.  Her thesis is entitled Young Women and Empowerment: Action Learning as a Critical Intervention in Education for Liberation.  As a piece of Freirean-feminist emancipatory action research, the work is situated in a paradigm of praxis, integrating research and practice with an aim to transform social and political circumstances.  It seeks to facilitate conscientization, empowerment, liberation, justice and peace for all people. The investigation weaves together several threads: Collaborative action learning as a means of conscientization. Conscientization as a critical intervention and education for liberation. Education for liberation as a means of empowerment for young women. Empowerment of young women as a means of promoting social justice In a holistic praxis, the research integrates four approaches to action learning: Popular Education, which supports the development of consciousness in seeing, analyzing and transforming oppression. Creative Arts Education, which helps to reveal new pathways to knowing and understanding, as well as to enable access to voice and expression. Outdoor Education, which promotes team building, problem-solving, resilience and self-reliance. Service Learning, which helps to illuminate how and why social problems exist as we work together to improve these conditions. Whendi conducted three studies with fifty-four young women throughout Connecticut, engaging in activities to facilitate the exploration of: perceptions, assumptions and biases; knowing, voice and expression; inner and outer realities; social construction of meaning; the inter-relationships of personal, cultural and structural influences; analyses of power relations and dynamics, and conscientization. The synthesis of the four action learning approaches contributes significantly to personal and social empowerment within the collaborative action learning community. This holistic experience of serves as a potent critical intervention in education for liberation, supporting young women in developing their abilities to think critically, consciously and creatively in working cooperatively, collaboratively and compassionately toward justice for all. Whendi is available to present the research on her own or together with some of the young women who participated in the study. For more information about informal education and action learning, visit: InFed World Trust Education Services Transformative Learning Theory