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Rappaport’s (1984) empowerment theory
Rappaport (1984) describes empowerment as a process and mechanism through which people, organisations and communities gain mastery over their lives. Empowerment is an act through which people are given necessary tools that shape them into whole persons as well as their way of thinking and consciousness. Empowerment can be achieved through participation with others and collective action that promotes and encourages change (Ledwith, 2005; Zimmerman, 2000).
Empowerment theory is characterised by empowering processes and outcomes. Empowering processes refer to those that attempt to gain control, obtain the required resources and critically understand one’s social environment. These could be; community involvement, shared leadership and decision making and media. Empowering outcomes refer to operationalisation of empowerment such as interventions that are planned to empower participants. The empowerment theory can be applied at individual, organisation and community levels (Zimmerman, 2000; Rappaport, 1987). In the context of this study, I used empowerment at individual level since my research was an intervention and involved teachers as individuals.
Empowerment at individual level is referred to as psychological empowerment or personal empowerment. Psychological empowerment includes; experiences that exert control through participation in decision-making or problem-solving in ones’ immediate environment. This can be achieved as individuals participate in different activities at their work places. While participating in these activities, individuals apply cognitive skills such as decision making, manage resources and work with others. Consequently, they are empowered in terms of sense of control, critical awareness and participatory behaviours (Zimmerman, 2000). Keiffer (1984) advanced that personal empowerment process undergoes four stages namely;
Entry stage (an act of provocation) whereby participant’s experience is threatened by some event or condition;
Advancement stage which involves a mentoring relationship, supportive peer relationship with a collective organisation, and development of critical understanding of social and political relations;
Incorporation stage that involves the development of a growing consciousness;
Commitment stage whereby participants apply the new participation to ever expanding areas of their lives (Lord and Hutchison, 1993).
Using the aspects of these two theories Cummins’ Linguistic interdependence hypothesis and Rappaport’s empowerment theory, I formulated the theoretical and conceptual framework that directed the design and implementation of the balanced reading instruction programme as illustrated in Figure 2.2.
Participatory action research
Participatory action research is a sub-set of action research whereby its researchers work in collaboration with the participants to make decisions and act on them and the collect information to effect change on social or environmental issues (Gaffney, 2008; Pain, Whitman and Milledge, 2007). In line with my study the change is the improvement of reading comprehension which is a challenge to teachers of bilingual children in the Ugandan context.
PAR shares similar attributes with action research. And thus, action research is described as a process whereby practitioners review their current practice; identify an aspect that needs improvement; identify a possible remedy and try it out while collecting information and then modify their practice in accordance to the modified action (Mc Niff and Whitehead, 2002).
This process undergoes an action-reflection cycle that involves planning, acting, observing and reflecting (Gaffney, 2008). Action research aims at generating knowledge that leads to improvement through people’s experiences and participation in the phenomenon under study. Its attributes include; being practical or action-oriented, participatory, collective outcome based indicated by improvement or change in practice (Mc Niff and Whitehead, 2002).
Similarly, PAR follows a cyclic and interactive process that undergoes action-reflection cycle. This process begins with identifying or diagnosing the problem; planning for a change or action; acting and observing the processes and consequences of change; reflecting on these processes and consequences; re-planning, acting and observing again; reflecting again and evaluating (Kemmis and Mc Taggart, 2007; Mc Niff and Whitehead 2002). As researchers engage themselves in the PAR cycles, they improve their knowledge, understanding and implement the change in accordance to data findings (Eliana, Milenkiewicz and Bucknam, 2008, p. 15). Kemmis and Mc Taggart (2007) state that the success of PAR is not whether the participants have faithfully followed the cycles but rather they have obtained a strong and authentic sense of development and progress or improvement in their practices.
The implication of the above views is that researchers who utilise PAR in their study ought to make use of its action-reflective cycles while collecting data, work in collaboration with the participants in their natural setting purposely to change or improve their practices. Hence in this tudy, in collaboration with teacher participants, we identified children’s reading comprehrension in both their native language and english as a challenge in our instruction which needed to be rectified. We then designed and adapted the balanced reading insturction programme as an intervention which was implemented in accordance to PAR cycles in Nyakayojo primary school as teachers’ school setting.
CHAPTER ONE: ORIENTATION TO THE STUDY
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Background to the study: Ethnic groups and languages in Uganda
1.3 Rationale for the study
1.4 Problem statement
1.5 Research questions
1.6 Clarification of core concepts
1.7 Theoretical framework
1.8 Research design and methods
1.9 Data collection strategies
1.10 Data analysis
1.11 Rigour and trustworthiness
1.12 Ethical considerations
1.13 Role of the researcher
1.14 Outline and organisation of the study
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Reading comprehension in early literacy
2.3 Reading comprehension difficulties in bilingual children
2.4 Research-based strategies for improving children’s reading comprehension
2.5 Balanced reading instruction
2.6 Emerging theoretical and conceptual framework
2.7 Summary
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Research paradigm
3.3 Research methods
3.4 Context of the study
3.5 Data collection strategies
3.6 Data analysis strategies
3.7 Rigour and trustworthiness
3.8 Ethical considerations in this PAR study
3.9 Role of the researcher in this PAR study
3.10 Summary
CHAPTER FOUR: BALANCED READING INSTRUCTION PROGRAMME
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Rationale for the balanced reading instruction programme
4.3 Phases of the balanced reading instruction programme
4.4 Implementation challenges
4.5 Recommendations on the implementation of the programme
4.6 Summary
CHAPTER FIVE: DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS
5.1 Introduction
5.2 The data analysis process
5.3 Emerged themes and sub-themes
5.4 Summary
CHAPTER SIX: DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS, IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY
6.1 Introduction
6.2 A synoptic overview of the study
6.3 Findings from balanced reading instruction programme for improving reading comprehension of bilingual children: literature control
6.6 Discussion of findings in terms of research questions
6.7 Reflections on the theoretical and conceptual framework
6.8 My contribution to knowledge
6.9 Reflections on the balanced reading instruction programme
6.10 Recommendations
6.11 Further study
6.12 Limitations of the study
6.13 Conclusion
LIST OF REFERENCES
