성인교육 분야 국제개발협력에서 임파워먼트 논의의 변화

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to explore how the concept of empowerment has been discussed over time by exploring the development process of empowerment discourse, focusing on the field of adult education in international education development cooperation. In addition, it studies the characteristics of change in terms of the content of the discourse and examines the context that influenced the change. Originality: Despite the social movement origin of empowerment, the instrumentalist meaning prevails and the discussions have shifted to emphasizing capacity building of individuals in international development cooperation. It is necessary to explore whether these changes have also occurred in the field of adult education, which has traditionally been interested in the issue of power and the liberation of minorities. This process is important because changes in meaning can affect the participants' lifeworld through policy and project implementation. Methodology: Discourse analysis was applied as a research method, and the conceptual discussions of Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory were used throughout the research process. Discourse analysis was conducted on UNESCO's official published materials related to empowerment and adult education published from 1984 to 2022. Result: From the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, when the radical meaning of empowerment diffused in the field of international development cooperation, the social transformation meaning of empowerment was also emphasized in UNESCO adult education discourse. From the late 1990s to the early 2010s, when the international community's focus on poverty eradication and human development expanded, discussions on empowerment related to expanding individual capacities, choices, and opportunities increased. After the mid-2010s, the era of sustainable development, the empowerment discourse that ordered learners to be competent in global challenges has spread. Conclusion and Implication: Empowerment has been a floating signifier that flowed without a fixed meaning in UNESCO adult education discourse, and the equivalent relationship of identities constituting the discourse has also changed from time to time. However, since the concept of empowerment with social transformation meaning is still important in the practice of international development cooperation, this study proposed responses in two directions. First, efforts are made to reconstruct the equivalent relationship of identities that creates the discourse of empowerment. Second, the discovery of alternative terms reveals the critical problem consciousness raised by empowerment, which paid attention to the crisis of inequality and the problem of power distribution.