Ecological Health Promotion: The Promise of Empowerment Education

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Abstract
An emphasis on individual health behavior change diverts attention from underlying social structures and policies that influence community health promotion. The purpose of this paper is to describe use of Freire's model of empowerment education to achieve community participation in promoting health enhancing social change. Freire's model of empowerment education helps people to gain mastery over their lives and environment through four phases of consciousness-raising: (a) issue articulation and investigation, (b) analysis of the content of group dialogue, (c) introspection and values clarification, and (d) preparation of a group action plan. This paper reviews the process of consciousness-raising, applies empowerment education to a hypothetical scenario, and concludes with a discussion of the strengths and limitations of empowerment education when applied to health education

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