Abstract
Empowerment is often a goal of community development projects aimed at poverty reduction; yet, ascertaining whether empowerment occurs can be elusive. This case study research examined the empowerment process. Thirty community partners participated in a three-year community-led initiative to improve public education in a rural northwest Tanzanian village. The initiative included capacity-building activities to enhance personal and collective agency. The findings from the analytic framework of self-determination theory indicated that the initiative simultaneously nurtured and satisfied community partners’ innate basic psychological needs of relatedness, competence and autonomy: hence affirmed their feelings of empowerment. Implications for the theory and practice are presented.
Keywords
Introduction
Poverty is one of the most perplexing problems in the 21st century. Globally, about five billion people live on less than USD 2.50 daily, and 26.50% of employed adults constitute the working poor who make less than USD 3.10 a day. Across 107 countries, 1.3 billion people live under multi-dimensional poverty. In sub-Saharan Africa, poverty is paruticularly acute: 55% of the population lives in highly impoverished conditions (Alkire et al., 2020; Alvaredo et al., 2018; United Nations Development Programme, 2018).
Tilak (2002) argued that what people living in poverty need most is empowerment. Indeed, empowerment is a stated goal of many community development projects; participation by community stakeholders is often the primary means of facilitating empowerment. Yet, Kamruzzaman (2020) challenged scholars and practitioners to rethink the relationship between participation and empowerment, contending that participation is often imposed upon people to support the existing goals of a particular project. Furthermore, power dynamics are seldom considered in how participation is enacted. As a result, many international aid projects are actually disempowering; instead of nurturing, enhancing and sustaining people’s agency, they create structures that undermine self-determination or agency through manipulative or tokenistic participation (Alsop & Heinsohn, 2005; Kamruzzaman, 2020; Narayan, 2005; Ryan & Deci, 2000).
The concept of empowerment is further complicated because many scholars describe empowerment as a process. However, it is mainly measured as an outcome, using proxy variables such as literacy, employment or income. This approach has been criticised as doing little more than equating agency expansion with its possible determinants (Maiorano et al., 2016; Sen, 1994). Maiorano et al. (2016) illustrated, ‘Easy to quantify variables such as income and poverty levels are widely used to test … efficacy, whereas other critically important aspects (including empowerment processes) are either reduced to their quantifiable dimensions or are treated very superficially’ (p. 128).
Measuring empowerment as a process is fraught with complications. Kieffer (1984) noted its subjective nature; Zimmerman (1995) stressed its open-ended nature; Maiorano et al. (2016), Narayan (2005) and Sen (1994) underscored that measuring processes is objectively difficult, ideally requiring data from at least two points in time; yet, such data are seldom available. The authors also underscored that although empowerment is qualitative by nature, its measurement excessively relies on quantitative methods. Staples (1990) emphasised, ‘… perception scales do not enable us to progress fully from the process to the product of empowerment. The empowerment process is a continuing development involving many changes ….’ (p. 38).
Scholars have further identified and discussed three fundamental levels of empowerment: personal (psychological), interpersonal and political. Notably, personal (psychological) empowerment has been recognised as a precursor to interpersonal empowerment and political empowerment (Koren et al., 1992). Nevertheless, there are problems with studying each of these levels. Kabeer (2001), Narayan (2005) and Zimmerman and Rappaport (1988) reported that personal (psychological) empowerment is the least studied.
In the study presented, a community-led initiative provided the opportunity to explore empowerment processes within the context of intentionally designed participatory activities. The initiative was based upon community needs assessment (CNA) findings conducted in six villages in rural northwest Tanzania (Rwebugisa, 2017). The CNA study revealed many well-documented poverty-related issues (for poverty-related issues, see Alkire et al., 2020; Alvaredo et al., 2018), but community partners also expressed a strong desire and willingness to collaborate to resolve local poverty-related issues. When asked, ‘If everything was possible without limitations and you had a chance to do something to improve education and livelihood in your community, what would you do?’, many responses reflected
the ability to collaborate with leaders in my community by sharing ideas on how to improve the living standard of people. I could emphasise people to participate in different social, political and economic meetings to acquire education and advice on how to have a better life.
The findings were interpreted to mean that community members understood that they possess valuable assets to the processes of sustainable community development. As such, the initiative was purposefully designed and deliberately undertaken to meaningfully engage with the villagers as critical partners to nurture their sense of empowerment.
The Study Context: Community-led Empowerment Initiative
Three theories framed the community-led empowerment initiative: asset-based community development (Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993; McKnight, 1995, 2013; O'Leary, 2006), community-based participatory research (Access Alliance Multicultural Health and Community Services, 2011; Hacker et al., 2012; Israel et al., 1998) and school−family−community partnerships (Epstein, 1995, 2011; Epstein et al., 2019). The initiative was conducted in four phases.
The first phase (summer 2017) was Rwebugisa’s (2017) CNA study, described above. Phases 2 and 3 utilised a homogeneous−heterogeneous grouping structure, as described by Baur and Abma (2014), to address asymmetric power relations among the community partners. Specifically, Phase 2 involved extensive meetings among three homogeneous groups: one group of parents, another group of teachers and the third group of community leaders (summer 2018). Using participatory video with most significant change (PVMSC) (Asadullah & Muniz, 2015; Davies & Dart, 2005; Lunch & Lunch, 2006), each homogeneous group engaged in videotaped dialogues about community affairs (e.g., education, collaboration, livelihoods and students’ food) reflected in the CNA study. The facilitated dialogues focused on nurturing individual and collective voices and building the community partners’ ownership of the collaboration throughout the initiative. The homogeneous groups included 17 PVMSC process meetings ranging from 40 minutes to 6 hours each.
During Phase 3, the three homogeneous groups met as one heterogeneous group (winter 2018−2019). This phase involved 10 additional PVMSC process meetings of up to 3 hours each. During these meetings, the community partners engaged in facilitated dialogues aimed at collective decision-making and collaborative action planning to solve the most significant change issue, which was the lack of food for students at school. Ultimately, they resolved to collaborate with others to establish and sustain a student food programme that was described in their community action plan (CAP).
Phase 4, implementation of the CAP, started in spring 2019. Community partners convened a 5-hour meeting attended by about 170 parents. They started by clearing an area at the school and planting sweet potatoes, bananas, cassavas and maise. They also contributed cash and maise grains. The implementation of the CAP was accomplished by the community partners, independent of the facilitator’s presence.
Purpose of This Case Study
The purpose of the case study research was to examine the development of personal (psychological) and interpersonal empowerment (referred to as PIE/agency hereafter) within the context of the community-led empowerment initiative implemented in the rural northwest Tanzanian village, Tuungane (pseudonym). For this study, an empowered person or group of people was assumed to: (a) have a choice, (b) use the choice and (c) achieve the choice as a result of simultaneously nurturing and satisfying one’s innate basic psychological needs of relatedness, competence and autonomy. The research question that guided this study was: How did select community partners express PIE/agency after participation in a community-led empowerment initiative?
Theoretical Framework
Maiorano et al. (2016), Narayan (2005), Özdemir (2019) and Sen (1994) summarised nearly five decades of struggle to measure empowerment as a process, using proxy indicators and quantitative methods. Richardson (2018) and Boomkens et al. (2019) later established that human agency is the only direct indicator of empowerment. Grounded in human agency and motivation, self-determination theory (SDT), as described by Ryan and Deci (2000), was used in this study to measure the empowerment process qualitatively. The theory argues that people are naturally agentic and proactive regardless of social class or cultural origin, but they can also be passive and alienated. SDT examines the causes of such human propensities. Specifically, SDT contends that human vitality or apathy occurs primarily because of the contextual social conditions in which people develop and function. However, context is an insufficient precursor for the agency; SDT presents three innate psychological needs—relatedness, competence and autonomy—that must be simultaneously nurtured and satisfied for individuals to feel empowered (Ryan & Deci, 2000).
Scholars applying SDT in education, community development and social identity have found that self-determination or agency and empowerment are interconnected. Boomkens et al. (2019), Lord and Hutchison (1993) and Zimmerman (1995) reported that the empowerment process influences the development of agency, which Kieffer (1981, 1984) noted is expressed through an individual’s attitudes, knowledge and behaviours. Ryan and Deci (2000) presented an SDT continuum, which maps the relationship between the three basic psychological needs and the types of motivation. Figure 1 was adapted to fit the context of this case study research. The SDT continuum was used to guide data analysis and interpretation.
Relationship of Psychological Needs and Types of Motivation. (Adapted from Ryan and Deci [2000] to fit the context of this qualitative case study research. Copyright 2000 by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.)
Methodology
A qualitative research paradigm was deemed appropriate to capture the empowerment process and analyse and explicate community partners’ unique perspectives in a natural setting (Creswell & Poth, 2018; Merriam, 1988; Terrell, 2016; Weiss, 1998). Sargeant (2012) underscored this relevance, ‘… qualitative research focuses on understanding the intervention or phenomenon and exploring questions like “why was this effective or not?” and ‘how is this helpful for learning?’ (p. 1). Qualitative research intends to contribute to understanding the studied phenomena.
To answer the research question, a case study research design was deemed appropriate for two main reasons. First, adapting and using SDT (Ryan & Deci, 2000) allowed us to adhere to Yin’s (2014) five criteria for using a case study research design: how and why questions; strong theoretical propositions with a clear purpose; specific unit(s) of analysis; a clear link between study data to theoretical propositions and purpose; and criteria for interpreting the findings. Second, many scholars have described empowerment as a simultaneously subjective, qualitative, developmental and psychological construct with an intrinsic value (Alsop & Heinsohn, 2005; Kieffer, 1984; Maiorano et al., 2016; Narayan, 2005; Richardson, 2018).
Participants
Consistent with Baur and Abma (2014), as well as Asadullah and Muniz (2015), 30 individuals, known in this study as community partners, were recruited into three homogeneous groups of key, local education stakeholders: parents (n = 11), teachers (n = 10) and community leaders (n = 9). The intent was to have homogeneous groups large enough to allow for the diversity of ideas yet small enough to be manageable for group processes. All 30 community partners were residents of the Tuungane village.
Scholars advocating asset-based, participatory approaches have stressed the importance of involving local authorities who are knowledgeable about the community and have access to potential community partners (Access Alliance Multicultural Health and Community Services, 2011; Israel et al., 1998; McKnight & Block, 2011; Snow, 2004). Thus, two meetings were conducted with the Tuungane village chairperson (two hours) and the school principal (one hour); these meetings served to engage the authorities and screen candidate community partners (Weiss, 1998; Yin, 2014). Individuals who expressed an interest in collaborating during the CNA study (Rwebugisa, 2017) were noted. Additional parents and community leaders were identified by the chairperson in collaboration with another community leader he trusted. A meeting was also held with the chairperson and the school principal to discuss the recruitment of teachers.
During all recruitment efforts, the first author explicated the purpose of the PVMSC process as an empowerment initiative and described the embedded case study research. He also emphasised that participation in both the PVMSC process and the case study research was strictly voluntary, without any monetary or personal material gains. However, he noted that community partners would learn and develop new skills in videography, underscoring that digital and video cameras, computers and other tools (see Lunch and Lunch [2006] for the complete list) would be used to record videos and sound. Pictures would be taken during the PVMSC process.
Ultimately, recruitment was left up to the chairperson and school principal. The intent was to promote key elements of capacity-building: involvement, trust, ownership and leadership, each was considered vital to the empowerment processes (Asadullah & Muniz, 2015; Wallerstein & Bernstein, 1994; Wignaraja, 2009).
Of the 30 community partners, the 11 parents included 6 women and 5 men. The 10 teachers included 7 women and 3 men. The chairperson and his colleague identified and invited 12 of the 25 village development council members they deemed interested and committed. Ultimately, nine, including two women and seven men, consented and consistently participated in the initiative and the embedded case study research.
Data Sources
Generally, qualitative research is not limited in its methodological choices and data sources. As such, qualitative case study research is applauded for its capability to use multiple sources of evidence to answer research questions (Creswell & Poth, 2018; Weiss, 1998; Yin, 2014). Because of the nature of empowerment, the most significant data points were associated with individual and group participation, attitudes, knowledge and behaviours. Accordingly, six data sources were used:
CNA Study Findings (summer 2017) Field Notes (summer 2017 through summer 2019) PVMSC videotapes (summer 2018 through spring 2019) Photographs (summer 2018 through spring 2019) Interviews with community partners (summer 2019) Drawings by community partners visualising empowerment (summer 2019).
Data Collection
Both data collection and use were undertaken within the University of Nevada, Reno Institutional Review Board (IRB), and the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology. All participants were provided with an information sheet and signed a video consent form, both translated from English (for university IRB approval) into Kiswahili (the language of the community partners).
Throughout the interviews, community partners were free to use the language most convenient to them. Most of them used Kiswahili, and a few mixed Kiswahili with Kihaya, the local dialect. None spoke English. Being a native of Tanzania with exceptional academic training in Tanzania and the USA, the first author exceeded the scholarly recommended minimum social, cultural and linguistic competence (Croot et al., 2011; Im et al., 2016; Squires, 2009).
Data Analysis
Data analysis was conducted in two steps. The first step involved reviewing the PVMSC process and generating a detailed description of the community-led initiative, which provided the context within which empowerment was assessed. The description, which can be accessed in Rwebugisa (2020), provided details about implementing the PVMSC process.
Following recommendations by Weiss (1998) and Yin (2014), the second step involved a systematic review and organisation of the data to identify empowerment based on the SDT theoretical propositions. The SDT continuum (Ryan & Deci, 2000) was adapted and used to guide data analysis and interpretation, focusing on the direction of evidence from non-self-determined to self-determined behaviour or intrinsic motivation. As recommended by Yin (2014), pattern matching combined with cross-case analysis and synthesis techniques were used to link the case study evidence to the SDT theoretical proposition of the simultaneous satisfaction of the three innate basic psychological needs of relatedness, competence and autonomy, as well as build explanations for the development and achievement of community partners’ PIE/agency.
To maintain the credibility and trustworthiness of the analysis, the first author constantly acknowledged and accounted for personal beliefs and biases as the facilitator and participant-observer (Yin, 2014). Biases were systematically alleviated by establishing strong theoretical foundations based on locally existing conditions, including the context, assets and needs (Yin, 2014). Other steps included following the case study protocol very closely and using external critical reviewers, including the academic advisor (second author) and another professor familiar with poverty issues in Africa. Both carefully assessed every idea and draft of this work. Additionally, member checking was conducted with the participants in this study.
Findings
Five interrelated themes associated with the development and achievement of PIE/agency were generated from the data: (a) Umoja ni Nguvu | Unity is power, (b) Ninaweza Kufanya Hiki | I can do this, (c) Nilishiriki kwa Hiari | It was my choice, (d) Tumeshirikiana! Tumepata Matunda | We have collaborated! We have seen the results and (e) Utekelezaji | Empowerment in action. These themes are indicative of the three innate basic psychological needs of relatedness, competence and autonomy.
Umoja ni Nguvu | Unity Is Power
Umoja ni Nguvu is a Swahili saying, which means ‘Unity is power’. Associated with the SDT need for relatedness, the saying implies that if we are going to do something successfully, we must do it together. Evidence of this theme was revealed in three distinct ways: conceptual knowledge, affective feelings/attitudes and commitment to collaboration. For example, the following statement from Estha (pseudonym), a community leader, reflected the affective feelings of understanding the needs of other people:
Personally, I felt good. Because it was a good time to know the successes and challenges we are going through together and solve those challenges. As village government leaders, we have our challenges and achievements, but parents also have their challenges and successes; teachers also have their challenges and successes. So, when we got together, and each side presented their challenges and successes, we then got together to see what we had achieved and what our challenge was; then we could move forward and resolve it together, and things went well ….
Ninaweza Kufanya Hiki | I Can Do This
Ninaweza Kufanya Hiki is a Swahili phrase that means ‘I can do this’, indicating the SDT need for competence. Four indicators of competence were found: knowledge of self-efficacy, personal effect, knowledge of context and belief in personal ability. Community partners stated emphatically their abilities to accomplish the work by juxtaposing past levels of awareness with their process of learning new skills. Descriptions, often very detailed and elaborate, tended to begin with words such as ‘I didn’t…’ or ‘I couldn’t…’, followed by a description of what happened, concluding with, ‘… but now I know this’ or ‘… but now I can do this’. These statements were explicit among parents (n = 7), teachers (n = 4) and, notably, all community leaders (n = 8).
Another way these statements revealed knowledge of self-efficacy was through a direct affirmation of gaining capacity. A parent, Diana, described her budding sense of self:
Basically, I felt happy. I was happy because since I was born until I grew up and got married, I had never sat down with other people to discuss these issues. So, I came to realise that oh! So, individuals who attend various seminars or research like this obtain this kind of knowledge! First, I learned and understood how to turn on a microphone, I learned how to take pictures, and I was able to listen to others’ opinions. That is the first benefit I got …. As you continue to listen to others’ views, I realised that you personally become more aware and open-minded. You get to understand that even if I didn’t know something, this is how it can be explained …. Personally, I learned many things from other participants …. I gained the quickness to speak before people. Remember, you may know how to talk, but you wonder! Can I speak in front of these people? But I became confident such that even when I go somewhere else, I can talk … I had never stood up and introduced myself, but there I picked up the microphone and introduced myself … it is like this, we often have women’s groups. But in these groups of women, if there is no guest who has come to visit them, there are no introductions. But if you go somewhere else, introducing yourself is necessary …. So that’s why I had never introduced myself, to stand, hold the microphone at my mouth, and introduce myself that I am so and so from somewhere ….
Perhaps the most profound indicator of competence was revealed through community partners’ feelings of personal effectiveness, indicated by statements reflecting a sense of: ‘I feel competent because my personal efficacy or skills are valued’ or ‘I feel honored and I am ready to volunteer because I was heard’. Noteworthy, parents, teachers and community leaders all felt valued. Deodatus, a parent, elucidated:
Indeed, for me I found it to be comforting, seeing that at my age I was involved to give my ideas to my colleagues. I found this to be a matter of pride because in the community, there are many people; now when you get an opportunity like this, of course, you must be proud.
Jackline, a teacher, underscored:
As a teacher, I felt good. I also felt comforted and valued in the community around me after being invited and involved in this study. I feel good about this research process because I have been involved very well. This process has empowered us to enhance collaboration and communication among parents, village leadership, and teachers.
Finally, a community leader, Julian, emphasised:
Thank you! When I was invited to participate in the research, I felt comfort in my heart because I realised that I am still valued in the community; and I understood that those who involved me, they personally appreciated my contribution; that I can contribute to the research initiative.
Belief in personal ability was the third indicator of competence. Reflecting a sense of commitment to action and participatory competence, Jackson, a parent, explained:
When I joined the research team, I was able to learn and then to act on it. We did some research and cultivated potatoes so that our children could get food at school. In addition, we went further and worked on improving the banana farm so that once the bananas grow, the children can get at least one banana to eat with porridge at the school. …Even if they say we should go every day; I will go and do it because the kind of progress I have witnessed at the school during the days that we did our research, I have realised that if we had done the same a long time ago, we could be very far….
Nilishiriki kwa Hiari | It Was My Choice
Autonomy is the third determinant of PIE/agency. Nilishiriki kwa Hiari is a Swahili phrase, which means ‘I participated voluntarily. It was my choice’. In addition to community partners’ feeling relatedness and competence, four indicators of autonomy were found: accessing knowledge, conscious valuing, intentionality and volition.
The first indicator of autonomy was reflected by community partners’ perceptions about self and others’ access to information to make decisions concerning the community-led empowerment initiative. Twenty-one community partners: parents (n = 7) and community leaders (n = 7) and notably all teachers (n = 7) directly confirmed being able to access information. For feelings about making an informed decision to participate, four parents, six teachers and five community leaders explicitly affirmed; seven parents, one teacher and three community leaders implied making an informed decision. One teacher, Jesca, explained:
Yes! I received information when I was notified that we could collaborate with parents …. So, after receiving the information, it appealed to me. I loved it; it was great. So, I made the right decision to participate … so that we can enable our students to have food here at school. I did it completely out of control because I wasn’t forced. I did it wholeheartedly with a completely dedicated heart.
The second indicator of autonomy was revealed by a sense of conscious valuing placed on the research initiative and its impact on collaboration and, most importantly, food for students. Community partners’ statements expressed a sense of gratitude, feeling proud of their involvement and valuing the work being done for children, education and the community. Indeed, these feelings were expressed by all parents (n = 11), teachers (n = 7) and community leaders (n = 8). For example, one parent, Deodatus, explained:
It was meant to build people psychologically so that they could understand what needs to be done at our schools … I personally see that it was about educating the community… it also gives parents the opportunity to prioritise and have a good plan for their children’s education. Also, I see that it motivates our children to learn and do well….
Musa, a community leader, had similar thoughts about the importance of the initiative to improving education in the village:
We met with parents, teachers and the village government leadership to undertake a research process about education, because education is something that was very poor. But when we started this community research process, I realised that we had obtained some empowerment that has given us the light by which to facilitate improvement in our education and achieve better successes….
Moreover, when asked: What was special and/or valuable about collaborating with others?, three things were directly mentioned: (a) ‘education’ in a broad sense (n = 14), (b) ‘students’ food’ (n = 17) and (c) ‘collaboration’ (n = 17). Education was valued almost evenly across groups. Editha, a community leader, summed up the importance of education: ‘… Elimu ni ufunguo [education is the key]. With education, you unlock everything.’ Perhaps expectantly, most parents identified student food as the most valuable outcome. For example, one parent, Tina, explained:
Personally, what I observed was that parents became highly motivated, they opened up their hearts and were able to contribute money for students’ food at school … when we got that seminar, we managed to help our children get food at school. We helped by going there and volunteering to farm …. We cultivated and planted sweet potatoes; then, we returned and worked on the banana farm; and later, we were invited and went to cultivate the cassava farm.
Collaboration was popular among teachers. Jackline, a teacher, stated, '‘This process has empowered us to increase collaboration and communication among parents, community leaders and teachers. Yeah! This process has resulted in good communication among the three groups….’
The third indicator of autonomy was revealed through community partners’ intentions for participation. A sense of personal purpose was explicit in their statements. Indeed, in response to the question: What (3–5 key reasons) made you decide to participate? Five interrelated reasons for involvement were stated or implied. As evidenced in many of the statements already reported, the first intent, ‘To learn; gain understanding’, was explicated by most parents (n = 6), one teacher and three community leaders. Likewise, the second reason, ‘To educate parents and community members by sharing my ideas’, was stated by four parents, two teachers and three community leaders. The third purpose, ‘For my personal or family benefit’, was explicitly articulated by two parents and two community leaders, and to certain extent implied by most of other community partners.
The fourth motive, ‘For the benefit of children or students’, was clearly described by most parents (n = 6), one teacher and three community leaders, and to certain extent implied by most of other community partners. As an example, a parent, Erick stated, ‘I realised that if our children do not have people to help them in our community, their academic development will continue to decline. And that made me decide to participate.’ Finally, the fifth reason, ‘Educational improvement or community development’, was explicated by four parents and, notably, all teachers (n = 7), and most community leaders (n = 5); implied by two community leaders. Julian, a community leader, had a fascinating take on the role of education in community development:
… Where we are heading, children who will not have the necessary education will not be able to achieve even the things that we have attempted to achieve and provide a foundation that will help them in the future …. Because right now we don’t have enough land for children to inherit. Currently, some of us, parents who have inherited our parents’ land, it’s not enough for us; we still struggle. So, the key is to educate our children ….
Finally, the fourth and core indicator of autonomy is volition, a person’s power (freedom) to use one’s will to execute a requested activity. Accordingly, community partners were asked about both their own and others’ volition. Community partners’ sense of self-volition was reflected in three interrelated types of statements. First, ‘I had control; I was free; I made a choice voluntarily’, was explicated by most parents (n = 10), all teachers (n = 7) and many community leaders (n = 5), and implied by one parent and three community leaders. Second, ‘I was not compelled; I was not forced; I was not coerced’, was articulated by most parents (n = 7), all teachers (n = 7) and many community leaders (n = 7), and implied by four parents and one community leader. Third, ‘I liked it; I loved it; it was from my heart’, was directly stated by three teachers, most parents (n = 9) and all community leaders (n = 8), implied by two parents and four teachers.
Tumeshirikiana! Tumepata Matunda | We Have Collaborated! We Have Seen the Results
According to SDT (Ryan & Deci, 2000), when people simultaneously feel relatedness, competence and autonomy, they experience PIE/agency. They can undertake a requested activity with a sense of inherent satisfaction. Five indicators of the simultaneous fulfilment of the basic three psychological needs were found in the data: congruence and synthesis with self, feelings of enjoyment in a broader sense, feeling successful, the capacity to aspire and personal affirmations of PIE/agency. Notably, community partners expressed their attitudes/feelings, knowledge and behaviours regarding I/We; Me/Us. Indeed, it was not easy to separate their distinctions between themselves as individuals and working as a group. As such, both personal and interpersonal empowerment are described concurrently.
The first indicator for the achievement of PIE/agency was revealed by community partners’ feelings of congruence and synthesis with the self concerning the initiative. While most community partners (n = 17) implied these feelings, statements by three parents, five teachers and one community leader revealed that the initiative was something they desired or were looking for to meet their personal/family or community needs. Datius, a parent, illustrated:
… The third reason as to why I decided to participate is generally related to my family because there are certain things I was personally contemplating before I was invited to participate. I was asking myself, what can I do or what kind of guidance can I get in order to do one, two, three things? But after receiving the information that there was this research initiative, I was motivated to participate so that I could acquire knowledge and later I could bring that information or knowledge back to benefit my family ….
A community leader, John, emphasised:
… When I thought about this research carefully as a community leader myself, I realised that it could be helpful in my leadership in terms of being able to initiate different projects in leading the community, especially in development matters …. I realised that the knowledge and skills gained from this research could help me to facilitate progress in my family so that I could prosper and as a result be able to help other people ….
The second indicator for the achievement of PIE/agency was feelings of enjoyment associated with the initiative. Indeed, as revealed in previous quotes, all parents and most of the teachers and community leaders directly expressed feelings of comfort, interest, enjoyment, happiness and satisfaction concerning their participation and collaboration.
The third indicator for the achievement of PIE/agency was the capacity to aspire: the ability to imagine a better future is associated with their participation. Many of the community partners’ statements focused on their aspirations to build on this experience in the future. These expressions were directly stated by two parents, one teacher and four community leaders; four parents and two teachers implied them. For example, a community leader, Fortidas, explained:
Personally, I think that the knowledge we gained about students’ food at school will not end here. The programme will continue to operate because those of us who learned, we learned so as to get the community out of misconceptions. That is why, so far, our affairs continue to be good in our village because we have enough education from our trainer. So, I personally have the ability and willingness to continue participating and inspiring and educating others …. We gained this competence from our research seminars.
Finally, the fourth indicator for the achievement of PIE/agency was affirmations of personal (psychological) empowerment concerning their participation in the research process. Community partners were explicitly asked to affirm if they felt competent and committed to continuing their voluntary involvement. Whereas three parents implied their affirmations, most parents (n = 8), notably all teachers (n = 7) and community leaders (n = 8), directly affirmed feeling competent and committed.
Community partners were explicitly asked if their expressed feelings were due to their participation in the community-led empowerment initiative or because of something else. Sixteen community partners (i.e., five parents, five teachers and six community leaders) directly attributed their feelings to participation. In contrast, four community partners (i.e., one parent, two teachers and one community leader) attributed their feelings to their level of education and current/previous job. Two community partners (i.e., one parent and one community leader) attributed their feelings of empowerment to prior seminars and other community involvements.
Utekelezaji | Empowerment in Action
Utekelezaji is a Swahili action word meaning ‘implementation’ of strategic plans to achieve specific goals. This theme was reflected in a statement by a community leader, John. He expounded:
…. I personally feel competent enough because of how we have been able to recognise the problems facing us. And I have the commitment to volunteer continuously in a variety of capacities, and to engage the community beyond just our research team. And for what reason? It is because without further action, it means that even our research will be useless. So, that’s why we must continue so that we do not start something that is not permanently successful ….
Attendance Frequencies at PVMSC Process Meetings.
The community partners developed a collaborative action plan (CAP), which they videotaped in a 45-minute film. During a subsequent meeting that lasted 5 hours and included 170 parents, watching the film allowed the additional community members to share their ideas to improve the CAP. After the meeting, the parents decided to establish and sustain a student food programme at the school. The parents organised over 200 people to clear the land and begin farming. They started by farming sweet potatoes, and later bananas, maise and cassavas. The parents also contributed over 300 kg of maise and $250 for students’ food.
Perhaps the most important outcome for the community partners was that, since February 2019, students have been eating nutritious food at the school. This outcome was confirmed in interviews, videotapes, photographs, drawings and field observations. As noted by one teacher and one community leader, the second significant result was that students’ absenteeism had declined at the school. Finally, the third outcome was revealed by Jacob, a parent who was proud that because of collaboration, even ‘the teachers have increased their efforts in teaching’. He concluded, ‘So, that has caused great comfort.’
Discussion
The purpose of the study was to examine the development of personal (psychological) and interpersonal empowerment (PIE/agency) within the context of a community-led initiative to improve public education in a rural northwest Tanzanian village, Tuungane. Using SDT, the empowerment process was conceptualised as an iterative, psychological construct with intrinsic value. Self-determination or PIE/agency is achieved through simultaneously nurturing and satisfying a person’s basic psychological needs of relatedness, competence and autonomy. The data provided evidence for the individual and simultaneous satisfaction of these three needs. All of the community partners in the study stated that they enjoyed working together on something they felt was important and valuable.
Two interrelated findings were found. Perhaps the most salient was how community partners expressed competence as both skills and, more significantly, having a voice: being heard and valued. Perhaps related to developing their voice, the second notable finding was the time involved in the PVMSC process.
The most significant finding was about competence. Existing literature generally defines competence as self-efficacy or the ability to do things with confidence and proficiency (Bandura, 1998; Hollowitz, 2014; Ryan & Deci, 2000). In this case study, competence was also portrayed as having a voice: feeling heard and valued, which is not generally included in the concept of competence but is particularly important for people living in extreme poverty. The significance of having voice is reflected in the words of poor men and women in Brazil who eloquently stated, ‘If you wear a suit, you are treated as “Sir,” but if you are wearing sandals they send you away’ (Narayan, 2005, p. 16 [emphasis in original]).
When considering the PVMSC process, there appear to have been several activities that directly contributed to feeling heard and valued. The time taken during the homogeneous groups for each community partner to think through their ideas, practise them, declare them on videotape, review them, make appropriate adjustments and ultimately approve them appeared to have been an important factor. Likewise, the time taken during the heterogeneous meetings to view and discuss the videotapes created by each homogeneous group reinforced and amplified their individual and collective voices.
Poverty in its many forms and dimensions does not happen overnight. Likewise, eradicating poverty through building capacity and empowering the poor will not happen overnight. For years, the critical problem is that well-intentioned bilateral and multilateral international organisations, local non-governmental organisations or NGOs and government agencies have approached poverty reduction and community development using a top-down approach. Often disregarding local cultures and assets, experts enter the community as rescuers who dictate and set the terms of participation (Kieffer, 1984; Rappaport et al., 1984; Toomey, 2011). Top-down approaches to poverty reduction may be ineffective because they are designed to be efficient, but efficiency is not necessarily effective (Kamruzzaman, 2020; Narayan, 2005; Sisask, 2001).
Further, many people who have lived in extreme poverty for generations lack trust in efforts originating from outsiders, contributing to the unprecedented failure of international development projects (Ika, 2012; Kieffer, 1984; Rappaport et al., 1984). Building trust only happens with time, patience and a consistent presence of culturally competent individuals and organisations who demonstrate their commitment to the well-being of the people and communities they serve. When people are disempowered, they need time to learn and practise to change attitudes and behaviours (Kieffer, 1984; Staples, 1990). Accordingly, the design and implementation of the PVMSC process deliberately served these purposes. Although considered a potential limitation to this qualitative case study research, the fact that the first author and facilitator filled an insider–outsider role may have contributed to building the general sense of trust more quickly than would be possible by an outsider. Findings from this qualitative case study research indicate that although the shortage of time is a criticism of many community development efforts, to be effective, they require adequate time to nurture and sustain trust.
Implications for Theory
There have been many struggles regarding measuring the empowerment process (e.g., Maiorano et al., 2016; Menon, 2001; Narayan, 2005; Özdemir, 2019; Richardson, 2018; Sen, 1994; Zimmerman, 1995). Findings from this study may contribute some insights. To a great extent, the findings presented mirrored the SDT continuum as theorised by Ryan and Deci (2000). These findings suggest that SDT can be used to explain how and why the development of PIE/agency happens in any intervention designed and implemented for empowerment purposes. However, it should be emphasised that when using SDT to examine the empowerment process, competence must be redefined to consider the importance of having a voice, which necessitates appropriate planning to ensure adequate time for building trust.
Implications for Practice
The findings of this study were consistent with prior empirical research in emphasising that poverty reduction depends on empowering the central actors: the poor people themselves, who have the most desire to break out of poverty (Narayan, 2005; Tilak, 2002). The community-led empowerment initiative was based on local capacity-building to nurture, facilitate and enhance PIE/agency and collaboration. Not to undermine the importance of expert knowledge and funding, the findings of this study indicate that when sustainable community development stakeholders and practitioners focus on nurturing (poor) people’s agency, empowerment can occur.
The empowerment theory research shows that at its core, empowerment implies that people and communities already have many assets to be recognised, mobilised and organised. Hence, people build upon their assets by learning new skills in the context of living their lives (Israel et al., 1998; Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993; McKnight, 1995; O'Leary, 2006; Rappaport et al., 1984; Staples, 1990; Toomey, 2011; Zimmerman, 2000). This concept was documented in the findings presented.
Although findings indicate that using the PVMSC process can lead to the development of personal (psychological) and interpersonal empowerment, a word of caution must be made. This process took time and patience to foster authentic involvement and meaningful engagement that nurtured genuine participation, enhanced ownership, promoted local leadership and, most importantly, built trust. The PVMSC process meetings ran long (40 minutes to 6 hours per meeting); often, people arrived late for reasons ranging from family care to job duties, sickness, deaths, other public meetings, etc. In other words, life interfered with the planned PVMSC process activities, and sometimes cancellations were necessary. Furthermore, although the PVMSC process was inspired by and built upon the CNA study findings (Rwebugisa, 2017) in which most community partners had participated, it took between three and four PVMSC process meetings for each homogeneous group to discuss and concur with the CNA study findings.
This finding explains the critical importance of time in developing voice and trust. Moreover, it is critical to recognise that when working with individuals who have experienced extreme poverty for a long period, patience and listening are required to allow the poor people to accept and, most importantly, believe that they have a voice. In summary, meaningfully engaging poor people requires flexibility, adaptation and keen attention to the needs of the community partners; it cannot occur on a strict, predetermined timeline and goals.
Finally, in this study, the empowerment process was examined within the context of rural poverty eradication. The findings have implications for other contexts, such as schools (Davis & Bowles, 2018) and other workplaces (Menon, 2001). Accordingly, to facilitate academic success in schools, teachers need to empower their students to feel relatedness, competence and autonomy through their pedagogical approaches; so should school administrators do for teachers and employers for their employees. Thus, the findings of this study suggest that teachers, school administrators and employers can achieve empowerment goals only if their pedagogical, administrative and leadership approaches create opportunity structures that simultaneously nurture and satisfy the three innate basic psychological needs of relatedness, competence and autonomy. These findings can also apply to counselling, coaching, therapy and other areas of practice that require one party to influence another to take action.
Limitations of This Case Study
Israel et al. (1998) mapped three challenges in conducting community-based participatory research. Specifically, the limitations include issues related to partnerships, methodology and broader contextual issues. Researchers have suggested ways to mitigate most of the limitations and challenges, including starting by assessing needs and mapping assets, and meaningfully involving and engaging the communities of interest (Israel et al., 1998; Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993; McKnight, 1995; Snow, 2004), as practised throughout this case study research.
Although Blickem et al. (2018) offered a theoretical framework about essential ingredients needed to activate asset-based community development, there is still a general lack of clarity about implementing and evaluating it. This case study was not designed to assess the initiative; instead, this study contributed to the existing scholarly consensus that these theories and methods facilitate capacity-building, empowerment and collaboration for sustainable social change when adequately conceptualised, contextualised and applied.
Conducting international research is a multifaceted challenge in and by itself; it also presents another set of limitations associated with practical issues and methodological challenges (Croot et al., 2011; Im et al., 2016; Squires, 2009). Although empirical suggestions were adhered to in this study, it is necessary to acknowledge that given the nature of languages, translation from Kiswahili and Kihaya to English cannot retain original meanings; translation may have affected the results. To paraphrase Yin (2014), translation involves delicate judgement by the researcher.
This case study was confined to one rural village in northwest Tanzania. It involved an initiative intentionally designed to foster PIE/agency through capacity-building activities—the initiative aimed at improving the quality of public education. However, within this village, only one primary school was the focus. Moreover, the initiative included only 30 community partners who might not fully represent the entire village. Different communities vary greatly and may or may not resemble the Tuungane village. Likewise, in examining the development of PIE/agency, perceptions held by opponents, allies and observers, as recommended by Staples (1990), were not included in this study.
Finally, it was notable that gender was not found to be a factor in the development of PIE/agency. In many traditional cultures, women hold a lesser status than men; yet, women in this study expressed empowerment at the same level. This may have been because the topic of the initiative was education, which is often considered a female-centric issue. Perhaps, if the topic of the community-led initiative involved household decision-making or facilitating women to run for local government positions, the findings might have been different.
Conclusion
The purpose of this case study research was to examine the development of PIE/agency within the context of a community-led empowerment initiative to improve public education in a rural northwest Tanzanian village, Tuungane. By design, the community-led initiative was systematically purposeful, flexible and adaptive to nurture, facilitate and allow for community partners’ genuine participation. The community partners identified the lack of students’ food at schools as the most significant change issue requiring prompt action. The outcome of the PVMSC process was a CAP to establish and sustain a student food programme. After the community partners participated in the initiative, evidence supported the simultaneous satisfaction of their three basic psychological needs as proposed in SDT: relatedness, competence and autonomy.
Using agency as the direct indicator of empowerment, the findings of this study indicated that SDT appropriately served as means to examine the empowerment process qualitatively. However, using SDT to examine the empowerment process among the poor requires a redefinition of competence to account for the poor people’s feelings of having a voice and being heard and valued. It also demands that SCD practitioners plan for adequate time to build trust rather than designing interventions that focus on achieving predetermined goals on strict timelines.
Notably, the community-led empowerment initiative was not the focus of this case study research. However, findings indicate that its design and implementation effectively created an opportunity structure for the genuine participation of the community partners in the Tuungane village. The required ingredients for scholars and practitioners to eradicate extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, and perhaps throughout the world, entail appropriate conceptualisation of empowerment and adequate investment of requisite resources, including the following: sufficient time for community partners’ genuine participation; intentional development of personal cultural competence of external experts; programming that is based on local knowledge and understanding; recognition, mobilisation, organisation and use of local assets; and external funding that builds-on local assets. All of these are aimed at building trust with people. Most importantly, this process must focus on nurturing and sustaining the poor people’s psychological empowerment or agency as the key agenda for policy-making and sustainable community development programming, implementation and evaluation at all levels.
This approach to poverty eradication requires that all stakeholders of sustainable community development make a mindset shift from merely concentrating on devising international aid projects to meaningful engagement in fostering poor people’s genuine participation in community-led empowerment initiatives. In essence, funding is essential; but the poor do not need aid alone. They need equitable, empowering opportunity structures with contextual social conditions that simultaneously nurture and satisfy their innate basic psychological needs of relatedness, competence and autonomy that allow them to exercise their agency spontaneously. Doing otherwise is not only a waste of resources but naïve at best and fraudulent at worst.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.