How can exploring power reveal social structures and dynamics?
Social movements and events that shape history are about power, so understanding power is essential if we want our students to both understand the historical process and to be empowered as effective change agents.
Power is often taught as a binary: who has/doesn’t have power, and how it was obtained and exerted by one group over another. Yet there are many other lenses through which to understand how power operates.
Note: The four strategies presented here are adapted with permission from VeneKlasen & Miller (2002). A New Weave of Power, People & Politics. Oklahoma: World Neighbors.
Learn more about the Integrated Action Civics framework.
Power Analysis includes four analytical tools:
Expressions of Power / Locations of Power / Faces of Power / Identity & Power (Power Flower)
Expressions of Power
How do those with power maintain their power and exert their influence?
How do those interested in change find and exert their power?
This lens provides five different ways that power is expressed. They offer concepts and language to help move students beyond a binary view of power in their analysis of contemporary or historical events.
- Power Over (dominating others)
- Power To (ability of all people and groups to exert influence)
- Power With (strength based on mutual support and solidarity)
- Power Within (a person’s capacity to imagine, have hope and persevere), and
- Power For (the goal and impact of power). Students can explore historical or contemporary inquiries referencing the various expressions of power.
USE THIS STRATEGY
HOW IT WORKS
CLASSROOM RESOURCES
CURRICULUM PLANNING
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EXAMPLES - Copy & Adapt
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LEARNING & EMPOWERMENT
INQUIRY EXAMPLES
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Contemporary Analysis / ActionHow does the Movement for Black Lives empower the African American community in the face of police violence?
Historical Investigation How did formerly enslaved African Americans asserted their power and agency during Reconstruction in the face of white supremacist violence and terror?
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Locations of Power
What can individuals or groups do to effect change?
How does power operate on a social, cultural or systemic level?
Where are there opportunities to have an impact?
This strategy helps students explore how power can operate at different places within a social structure. It can also reveal how the different spheres/locations of power can interact with each other. For example: Laws passed by the government (systemic) could be met with resistance from individuals and/or groups; Social movement may inspire individuals to act and result in systemic change.
Using primary and secondary sources, students can use this strategy to investigate historical case studies, or to serve as a powerful tool for student civic engagement in their communities.
USE THIS STRATEGY
HOW IT WORKS
CLASSROOM RESOURCES
CURRICULUM PLANNING
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EXAMPLES - Copy & Adapt
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LEARNING & EMPOWERMENT
INQUIRY EXAMPLES
- Contemporary Analysis / Action - How might individuals, groups, social norms or systemic structures influence the challenges faced by refugees crossing the US border?
- Historical Investigation - How did power operate in different spheres as Germans confronted the rise of fascism in their country?
CONNECTIONS AND EXTENSIONS
- Expressions of Power expands students' language and understanding of power.
- Cause/Consequence Analysis helps students see the interconnection of causes and consequences that operate at different levels of society.
- Stakeholder Matrix helps students see the range of groups and individuals who are involved in a problem or an issue
- Strategize for Change or Clarify Goals - Students can draw on ideas from the "Locations of Power" strategy as they clarify their goals and develop a strategy for action.
Faces of Power
How visible is the power that affects us?
This lens distinguishes between Visible, Invisible and Hidden faces power. These concepts and language help students see different levels in which power operates, including those that may not be immediately apparent.
- Visible Power: We can see where and how decisions are made.
- Hidden/Shadow Power: The location of power and decisions is unclear or unknown.
- Invisible Power: These are the more insidious, internalized adopted beliefs that disempower (or entitle) people.
USE THIS STRATEGY
HOW IT WORKS
CURRICULUM PLANNING
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CLASSROOM RESOURCES
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LEARNING & EMPOWERMENT
INQUIRY EXAMPLES
- Contemporary Analysis / Action - Where are decisions made that impact transgender youth on our campus?
- Historical Investigation - How were women influenced to leave the workforce in large numbers following WWII?
CONNECTIONS AND EXTENSIONS
- Expressions of Power - Explores how power can act within different realms of society - individual, group, social and systemic. The different Faces of Power operate within each of these realms.
Identity and Power (Power Flower)
How do different identities or attributes of a group expand or limit their power?
The “Power Flower” strategy allows students to explore the identities that empower or disempower an individual or group within a dominant society. It can highlight the impact of systems of oppression and reveal community wealth that empowers resistance and change.
USE THIS STRATEGY
HOW IT WORKS
CURRICULUM PLANNING
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CLASSROOM RESOURCES
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LEARNING & EMPOWERMENT
INQUIRY EXAMPLES
- Contemporary Analysis / Action - How does identity affect the power of Central American refugees seeking asylum in the US?
- Historical Investigation - To what extent was the US Revolution a revolution? (Students compare groups' "Power Flower" before and after the US Revolution).
CONNECTIONS AND EXTENSIONS
- Worldview - Explores how you developed your outlook on the world.
- Empowerment Framework - Offers a guide in how we can have more agency and power in our lives.