Linking community organizing and adult learning to explore empowered learning

This study looks at the Non-traditional context of learning, Community Organizing, which is studied because it is a rare avenue for lifelong learning, Organizing uses alternative power such as collective power and is deliberate about the development of individual empowerment and group power. This study expands on other research by exploring how the power of the group is connected to individuals in the group, and the implications this has for empowering learners in the group learning context.;Links between power and learning are explored by documenting the experiences of ten leaders who participate in a particular Community Organization. Data is collected using qualitative strategies such as in-depth interviews and autobiographies. This study is a narrative inquiry in which the stories people tell about themselves are recorded and analyzed for common themes.;Findings show that leaders develop new skiffs and confidences, learn about power, and participate in alternative types of leadership and power sharing. Organizing empowers learners and provides a place for critical reflection and development of meaning. It moves beyond the boundaries of traditional schooling. The study uses the voice of the learners to identify significant learning processes. It discusses the usefulness these have for helping other learning contexts be effective empowering learning.;This study presents a view of power and learning which says neither power nor knowledge can be given to someone. Both power and knowledge are created through action and through doing. Praxis, the exchange of experience and reflection is crucial to the development of power in the collective and to the development of effective learning in the group. Learning and Empowerment are active, collaborative, constructive, and continuous processes which allow the learner to interact with the world.;This study suggest collective power is the nature of power that connects the power of the group to individuals in the group. However, this does not happen automatically. The structure of and processes in the group have to be shaped to support shared power and learning. This study suggests that we can use the strategies that emerge from community organizing to meet the challenge of empowerment in the classroom.