“How can we understand the role of education?”
A qualitative content analysis of resources, agency, and achievements of the situationof migrant women in Sweden and the ir political and social empowerment.
Political Science: Global Politics and Societal Change O ne - Year Master Program
15 Credits. Fall 2019
Supervisor: Dr. Johan Brännmark Student: Agata Kunka
Abstract
Migration has been an extensive topic in Sweden as it has been debated and discussed through various perspectives such as through the political and social participation. Within this scope of research education is one of many important factors that enhance political and social participation within migrant women (Atger, 2009). This research aims to analyze the role of educating migrant women in empowering them to acknowledge their political and social development through the tool of empowerment theory of Naila Kabeer; resources, agency, and achievements (1999). Resources have been examined as economic, human and social ones by the tool of content analysis. Agency refers to the ability of individuals to recognize and act upon choices available to them; decision- making process (Ibid). Achievements include women participation in different organizations, political parties and in the labor market. This paper analyses education that empowers migrant women through resources, agency and achievements to become a socially and politically active agent in Sweden.
Word count: 16166
Table of Content
Abstract ... 2
1.1 Introduction ... 5
1.2 Topic Relevance to the Field of Political Science ...5
1.3 Aim and Research Question ...7
2. Lite rature Review ... 8
2.1 Conceptualizing Empowerment from a gender lens ...8
2.2 Mapping the role of Education in Empowerment ...9
2.3 Women Empowerment, Education and Migration ... 11
4. Theoretical Frame work: Kabeer Empowe rment Theory... 12
4.1 Empowerment Theory and Political Science... 13
3. Methodology... 15
3.1 Data and Material... 16
3.1.1 Semi-structured interviews... 16
3.1.2 The Role of the Interviewees and the Researcher ... 17
3.1.3 Ethical Consideration... 18
3.2 Report: Migrant political participation: a review of policies and integration results in the OSCE region ... 19
3.4 Delimitations ... 19
3.5 The Case of Sweden... 20
3.6 Qualitative Content Analysis and Coding ... 22
5. Analysis... 23
5.1 Mapping the Interviews with migrant women in Sweden (28-36)... 24
5.1.1 Investigating Resources ... 24
5.1.2 The Discussion of Income... 24
5.1.2 The Discussion of Skills ... 26
5.1.3. The Discussion of Civic Education ... 27
5.2. Agency: Decision-Making... 29
5.2.1. The Discussion of Decision Making ... 30
5.2.2. The Discussion of Negotiations... 30
5.2.3. The Discussion of Resistance ... 31
5.2.5 The Discussion of Voice ... 31
5.2.6 The Discussion of Cognitive Process of Reflections ... 32
5.2.7 The Discussion of Capacity ... 33
5.3. Achievements ... 33 5.3.1. Capability... 34 5.3.2. Political Participation... 35 5.4. Report Analysis ... 36 5.4.1 Resources ... 37 5.4.1.1 Social Capital ... 37
5.4.1.2. Civic Education, Citizenship Knowledge ... 38
5.4.1.3. Income... 39
5.4.2. Achievements ... 39
5.4.2.1. Political Participation ... 40
5.4.2.2. Social Participation: Voluntarism ... 40
5.4.3.Agency ... 41
5.5. Conclusion of Analysis ... 42
5.5.1 Resources: Income, Skills, Civic Education and Social Capital ... 42
5.5.2 Agency and Achievement: Political Participation, Social Participation, Capabilities... 43
5.5.3 Discussion ... 43
6. Conclusion ... 44
7. Bibliography………46
8.Appendix………...54
1.1 Introduction
People from countries of the EU, as well as from countries within the European Economic Area (EEA) constitute a large and an important immigrant group in Sweden. The biggest group among the EU and EEA citizens in 2017 were Poles, followed by people from Finland, Germany, Norway, Romania, the UK, Ukraine, Russia, Slovakia and Denmark. The main reason of immigration for those people were: labor immigration and immigration of international students (Swedish Migration Agency, 2015). The main problem however according to (Albornoz et al, 2017) is that the skills and the level of education of immigrants acquired in their country of origin is less valued than the ones obtained in the country of destination such as Sweden. This is also underlined under the (OECD, 2015) as it states that the proficiency of immigrants in their native language is of little use in a host country. Thus, language skills reinforce the ability of immigrants to build social networks with the native-born population of Sweden, and search for a qualified job; determining the speed of integration and the success of empowerment – both political and social. Due to the fact that the empowerment of women immigrants in a host country is one of the vital objectives of developing government of a democratic state, the political and social participation of immigrants has been an issue with high significance. This is evident because in 1976 immigrants who had resided in Sweden for more than three years were given the right to vote and be elected in local and regional elections. However, this has not brought the result of participation to vote as was expected. O nly 40 percent of those who were entitled to vote took part in election with very low women participation. The necessity to attend to the special needs and interest of the immigrants and their children thus become clear during this time (OECD 2015 and Swedish Migration Agency, 2015). For this reason, some key scholars such as (Verba et al, 1995) and (Campbell, 2006), argued that education influences individuals’ civic skills and cognitive capacity, which in turn increases political participation. Thus, understanding the relationship between education and political participation is one of the most important questions on political economics and political science (Berinsky & Lenz, 2011). 1.2 Topic Relevance to the Field of Political Science
The relevance of this topic in the field of Political Studies lies in the understanding of empowerment of migrants in a host country that is one of the vital objectives of the government for a developed democratic state such as Sweden. The World Bank (2016), for example, has stated that the notion of empowerment and its implication in real life is one of the key essential elements of poverty reduction, democracy improvement; as well as the
primary development assistance goal for democratic states. It is relevant at the individual and collective level, and can be economic, social, or political. The concepts of empowerment, education and equality in political and social spheres of life are in the list of the most widely discussed and argued topics among worldwide activists and scientists (The Millennium Development Goals Rep. ort, 2015). This empowerment of women is a recognized need by the international agencies like UN Women and the UN Global compact Office (2001). These agencies emphasize that women empowerment in all sectors of economic life worldwide is very important in order to build strong economies, create stable and just societies, achieved sustainable international development goals, and to improve the life of women. Thus, Bisnath (2001) says that women empowerment can be achieved through consciousness raising, education and as well political participation. Therefore, understanding the relationship between education and political participation is one of the most important questions within political economics and political sciences (Berinsky & Lenz, 2011).
Given the aforementioned, this study aims to present and underline that migrant women of Baltic origins have great potential for social and political change in Sweden. This will be achieved through conducting different interviews about the role of education in empowering women to realize their potential. This is relevant to Sweden, because the studies on the immigration of women have a long history in Sweden as a multicultural country (Mukundiyimana, 2013). Scholars have thus gathered much more information about Swedish native population and foreigners living within the country, their contribution and impacts on labor, health care sphere, education, social and political participation (Ibid). A predominant line of argumentation in the existing academic literature shows that political participation of migrants is based on a multiplicity of elements that contribute to determining the extent to which migrant women may become an active agent by giving them the right tools through education (Atger, 2009). Within political science education for a long time it was consider a potential cure—the ‘‘universal solvent’’ that might alleviate participatory inequalities (Converse 1972, 324 in Kam and Palmer 2008). But is this view correct? Is education not underlined too much or are its effects misinterpreted in political behavior research?
is related to political participation (Persson 2013, 878). For this reason, it is important to give migrant women political and social empowerment through education in the Swedish society.
1.3 Aim and Research Question
Reiterating the above, this paper will focus on migrant women in Sweden as means to empower them to become politically and socially active by answering the following research question:
How can we understand the role of education in empowering migrant women in Sweden to become politically and socially active in their community? (Appendix 9).
Women are the focus of this study and education as means to qualitatively measure the extent of their empowerment were chosen as the focus, due to the fact that while democratic countries have achieved the progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment under the Millennium Development Goals, immigrants, particularly women and girls, continue to suffer from political and social discrimination and violence in many countries worldwide.
In empirical analyses of political participation, education is often used as an exogenous variable to predict participation in politics (Persson 2014). Verba et al (1995) and Campbell (2006), argued that education influences individuals’ civic skills and cognitive capacity, which in turn increases political participation. It is therefore important to investigate the relationship between education and civic and political outcomes in more depth among migrant women. Verba, Schlozman and Brady (1995) put forward three factors as central explanations for political participation: resources, motivation and recruitment. For this reason, this research aims to analyze the role of education in empowering Baltic migrant women which was the biggest migrant group in 2017 and to acknowledge their political and social development through the very relative tool of empowerment theory of Naila Kabeer. This theory was chosen because it focuses on three main elements; resources (life skills), agency, and achievements (1999). Education has a strong positive impact on individuals’ civic skills and cognitive capacity, which in turn increases political participation (Verba et al. 1995, Campbell 2006). Reiterating the above mentioned, Kabeer’s empowerment theory is the perfect tool to analyze empowerment in the context of our study as it not only addresses the gain of resources but also empowerment through a broader perspective of agency and later achievement. In this way this study could add to existing research within political sciences
data, analyzed through Kabeer’s three-dimensional conceptual frameworks, which makes it possible to measure the process of empowerment according to such categories.
To better understand what has been discovered in the field of political science, the next chapter will focus on the literature review and theoretical framework of this paper.
2. Literature Review
This section will look deeper into the literature found in the field of political science to later use as a basis for the analysis of the given research question. It will be divided chronologically based on Kabeer’s theory of women empowerment as follows. It will first underline and bridge empowerment as means for political and social stability by examining the literature found from the gender lens. It will later map the linkage between education and Kabeer’s three phenomena on empowerment; resources, agency, and achievement. At the end, the paper will merge part one and two and discuss the literature found within the framework of migration and empowerment of women in Sweden.
2.1 Conceptualizing Empowerment from a gender lens
Generally, the word empowerment means the process a person undergoes on the way to various changes, whether they are of the personal, professional, social or other meaning. For instance, Stromquist argued that empowerment is a process to change the distribution of power both within the interpersonal relations and in institutions throughout society (1999:14). With the extensive amount of migration, Abhyankar and Iyer distinguished the following elements of women empowerment access to information (as it is considered to be the weapon of the 21st century); inclusion and participation (meaning who and how one could be included in the process of participatory decision making, as well as the role one could play within it); accountability (the ability to rely on the public officials, answerable for the policies, actions and use of state’s funds); local organizational capacity (the ability of people to cooperate to make themselves heard and meaningful within social and political processes) (2001, 9). However, the key scholar who was among the first social scientists to investigate the phenomena of empowerment, namely Kabeer, proposed a very important and fruitful clarification to the sensation of empowerment quoting; “The expansion in people's ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them" (2001:34). Kabeer proposed the understanding of choices compromising the following: resources, which form the conditions under which choices are made; agency, which is at the heart of the process through which choices are made and achievements, which are the
outcomes of choices (Ibid). Further, Rowland (1997:34) outlines that the exploration of empowerment of women should be based on the following levels: personal (that involves the sense of self-esteem and inner capacity); relational (that is the ability to communicate influentially within as society); collective (involvement into political life of country, cooperation within groups of citizens or society in general). He suggests that it is the expansion of freedom of choice and the right of action to some extent, while increasing one’s authority over one’s life and within society.
This is a focus of this paper as it will discuss and qualitatively measure the empowerment of migrant women who mainly did not have previous ability to act as agents of social and political change in their country. For this reason, the next section will move further to outline Kabeer’s theory by mapping its relations to empowering migrant women.
2.2 Mapping the role of Education in Empowerment
Education is considered to be the process that provides necessary knowledge and skills required for individuals to be fully integrated in the labor market and the economic sphere of a state. Education also makes people able to act according to well- informed decisions contributing to the socialization and stability of modern societies (Campbell, 2006:43). The first thing to understand within this topic are the links between social well-being and education, especially in the current context of globalization were not only formal knowledge, but current individual’s abilities and skills play a key role in effective and successful participation of people living within a country in their social life (Ibid.) Moving further, research within the context of political and social participation has played a vital role in the field of political science as many scholars has underlined its direct and indirect cause in the integration process of a new community (Person 2011, 2012, Burden 2009, Berinsky and Lenz, 2011, Campbell 2006, Highton, 2009, Kam and Palmer 2008, Mukundiyimana 2013, Nie, Junn and Stehlik-Barry 1996, Dee 2004, Milligan, Moretti and Oreopoulos 2004, Hillygus 2005, Campbell 2006, 2008, 2009, Highton 2009, Sondheimer and Green 2010, Berinsky and Lenz 2011, Person 2008, 2011, 2012).
Verba et al (1995) and Campbell (2006), argued that education affects political participation and civic engagement through the resources people have available to them (including civic skills) and through networks that stimulate political activism. This is of extreme importance to this paper as it links to Kabeer’s theory, specifically the notion of resources as it covers in itself both material capability and social characteristics the main function of which is to
enhance the ability to implement the choices. These abilities could be gained through the processes of making social relationships carried out on the various social levels: family, market, community, and nation (Kabeer 1999:439). Furthermore, Scholars have argued that education, which gives academic ability, can positively affect the civic and political engagement (Persson, 2014, Ten Dam and Volman 2007, Torney-Purta et al. 2001, Henderson and Chatfield 2011; Mayer 2011). It could also develop the cognitive process of reflection and ability to analyze a given situation (Ibid). This per se could also be related to Kabeers theory of women empowerment when it comes to agency as it is believed that education such as university studies and vocational trainings could act as a catalyst to empower women to become decision- makers by realizing the pros and cons of a given situation. Furthermore, many studies have focused on classroom implementation of citizenship education and its effectiveness in the creation of democratic attitudes (Verba et al. 1978, 1995, Ten Dam and Volman 2007, Torney-Purta et al. 2001).
Some literature also underlines the role of democratic practices of a classroom interaction between students and between students and teacher. This way education is not only the primary matter of factual knowledge, but also the degree to which the population shares the basic democratic attitudes and normative expectations about the system. Hence, the educative school itself functions as a small-scale democratic community (Flanagan & Stout, 2010). This approach is commonly performed by the concept of an open classroom climate, in which students are encouraged to express their own opinions (Campbell 2006; Torney-Purta et al., 2001). For this reason, it is believed that these arguments show that education promotes democratic value through political trust and engagement in political participation, which is a form of achievement as women will be more capable and will hold individual preferences that in turn affect political and social engagement.
Additionally, Albornoz et al. tend to state that the skills and the level of education of immigrants acquired in the country of origin can be less valued than the ones obtained in the country of destination (2017:5). Thus, empowerment, in the general scope, is the process of gaining power over words and actions, decisions and resources, which determine the quality of life, on the one hand, and democratic states’ development, on the other hand.
However, other studies show different results, as according to to Mayer (2011) education does not affect voting participation. Kam and Palmer (2008) supports this statement by claiming that higher education does not cause political participation but rather works as a proxy. In
addition, various studies have complicated the discussion further by arguing that the effect of education is relative rather than absolute. It is argued that the effect of education on political participation, takes credit for factors, which are most often unobserved such as cognitive ability and childhood socialization. In considering these factors it reveals that higher education does not in itself seem to have any causal effect on political participation (Persson 2013, Bers and Chau 2010).
2.3 Women Empowerment, Education and Migration
One of the main factors that contribute to political participation of migrants is the structure of political opportunities that provides an inclusion or exclusion mechanism existing in the state’s political system (Martiniello, 2005). Other issues include the length of residence, the circumstances leading to migration, political ideas and values, feeling of belonging to the host country, their temporary or permanent presence, knowledge about the political system and institutions, age, gender and income. Education is regarded as one very important element among many (Atger 2009). According to Solis (2012) education has been considered by political economy and political science literature as one of the most important factors explaining political participation: voter turnout, civic engagement, political knowledge, and democratic attitudes. Due to existing evidence about the importance of education, the majority of surveys focuss on the connection between the education of female immigrants and their participation in social and political life of the country, as well as the reverse effect of their activities within the state on the individual development of each (Mukundiyimana 2013).Therefore, the need to provide gender equality and empowerment of women immigrants has emerged, as it turns out to play a crucial role in building democratic society. Kabeer (2001:10) was among one of the first scientists who investigated the phenomenon of empowerment as means of resources, agency, and achievement. She proposed a useful definition that describes the notion in general and can be applied across the range of contexts were development assistance is concerned with: "The expansion in people's ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them." Additionally, Rowland (1997:34) described the definition of the phenomenon above, stating that the exploration of empowerment of women should be based on the following levels: personal (that involves the sense of self-esteem and inner capacity); relational (that is the ability to communicate influentially within as society); collective (involvement into political life of country, cooperation within groups of citizens or society in general). He suggests that it
is the expansion of freedom of choice and the right of action to some extent, while increasing one’s authority over one’s life and within society.
To summarize the above mentioned, it is evident that Kabeer’s theory acts as a framework for measuring women’s empowerment on multiple levels. However, an interesting point for this paper is the collective level, which will be discussed in the methodology section as means for coding the data and interviews at hand. For this reason, it is believed that if this paper is capable to show that resources + agency = achievements through education, then it is believed that migrant women in Sweden are capable to become socially and politically active in their community and thus be a part of a democratic state, therefore answering the research question.
4. Theoretical Framework: Kabeer Empowerment Theory
Empowerment theory in its origin echoes back to a plan of liberating the oppressed through education, which was proclaim by Brazilian humanitarian and educator Freire (1973). The concept of empowerment was developed and understood by scholars in many different notions and used in a variety of disciplines like social work, sociology, educations (Lincoln et al., 2002). Thus, empowerment relates to individual wellbeing and the struggle to create better environment (Perkins and Zimmerman, 1995:569, Tannous 2018).
This understanding of empowerment is presented in a variety of perspectives for example according to Adams (2003) who emphasized that empowerment is defined as ‘the means by which individuals, groups and/or communities become able to take control of their circumstances and achieve their own goals, thereby being able to work towards helping themselves and others to maximize the quality of their lives’.
Dalrymple and Burke (2006) stated that empowerment is an integral part of anti-oppressive practice. Another scholar emphasized that empowerment aims at structural inequalities (Dominelli, 1997). Leung (2005) recognizes three different perspectives of empowerment; individualistic, structural, and postmodernist. The individualistic perspective presents the strength of individuals in social participation as a way to fight their powerlessness. The structural perspective presents power understood as a tool used by oppressors to oppress those who have no voice in society. The last postmodernist perspective of empowerment presented by Leung (2005) aims at addressing unequal power relations between men and women, showing women’s subordination in the family, community and state. Therefore, the feminist approach emphasizes the original concept of women’s empowerment, that acknowledges
inequalities between men and women and the unequal power relations between them (Bisnath 2001).In light of this , empowerment is related to many concepts such as democratization, social work, consciousness, anti-oppressive practice, normalization, postmodernism and social work in new age Adams (2003, pp. 9-13). It shows how important the struggle for social justice is and women’s equality in different aspects of life: economic, social and political. Thus, Bisnath (2001) says that women empowerment can be achieved through consciousness raising, education and as well political participation.
As many scholars stated, empowerment is not a straightforward process (Dalrymple and Burke 2006). However, within this process some of the scholars have criticized those empowerment strategies that focus on the improvement of life situation of women without recognizing unequal power relations that creates such inequality (Leung, 2005). In this they stress that improving capacity like self-confidence and consciousness need to be related with change of structure that oppress women, like patriarchal social and political power structures Rowlands 1998, Saraswati 2005, Jönsson 2010, Mukundiyimana 2013). Some scholars Cakir and Guneri (2011, p. 1045) divided empowerment into three factors of support, first includes self-esteem, positive thinking about the future and control, second includes ‘actual power’ of individual and the last o includes ‘the ability and willingness to harness anger into action and a socio-political component of empowerment that is evident in both community activism and righteous anger’ (Cakir and Guneri, 2011 p. 1045). In this process there is also acknowledged psychological empowerment, which has its outcome in positive adaptation of immigrants, language proficiency, educational level and political participation.
4.1 Empowerment Theory and Political Science
Within Political Science empowerment process is included in concepts: learning, joining and mobilizing (Weissberg, 1999). Empowerment theory is also used in the analysis of the political participation. There is examination of the representational links, positive attitudes and intellectual capabilities in order to foster and encourage political participation (Banducci, 2004, De-Shalit, 2004). Those scholars emphasized that the first step of empowerment is to increase individual decision- making and let those know about political and social inequalities, that can help them to start to grow their power within their inner systems, the desire to
change and join public action (Weissberg 1999, Tannous 2018, Friedmann1992, Parpart et al. 2003). Therefore, power of the individuals’ growth through acquiring the skills: resources,
agency and achievement in order to mobilize collective action and share this power with others. Advocacy on behalf of women in a situation of limited resources, were policy makers
have to adjudicate between competing resources, takes policy makers out of their familiar conceptual territory of welfare, poverty and efficiency into territory of power and social injustice. For this reason, this paper takes empowerment theory written by Naila Kabeer as its central concept (Kabber 1999). Kabeer defines empowerment as the processes of change, through which those who have been denied the capacity to exercise choice gain this capacity (Kabeer 2012). Kabeer’s model locates empowerment within the context of disempowerment that set the stage for the action of resources, agency and achievements (Kabeer 2001, Swendeman et al. 2019). Furthermore, the notion of empowerment takes different dimensions and has different levels in order to materialize a variety of processes. The most crucial and starting point in empowerment is ‘power’. Power in empowerment will be clarified in order to understand in which way the notion of empowerment will serve as an explanation of empowerment migrant women by the education (Kabeer 1999b).
Power will be explained in its possibility to make choices, in this way the person denied choices is disempowered. Thus, the notion empowerment relates to disempowerment and the process of gaining the ability to make choices by the people who did not have such ability. It is a process of change. By explaining this process of change we can look at people who make a lot of choices every day and may belong to very powerful people, but it is not empowerment, because they were never disempowered in the previous choices (Kabeer 1999b). Furthermore, power to be explained demands understanding of choice. First of all, choice implies the possibility of alternatives, and the ability to have chosen otherwise. There is a logical link between poverty and disempowerment because an insufficiency of the means to satisfy one’s fundamental needs often rules out the ability to exercise meaningful choices. Some choices have greater significance than others in terms of their consequences for people’s lives. Thus, there becomes two categories of choices. First are the strategic life choices, which we do not consider in our everyday life, but they have a fundamental role in our life- to express the way we want to live our lives. An example of the strategic choices are decisions we make about the number of children we want to have, where to live, whom to marry and choice of friends. These strategic choices design other choices, which have less significance but influence our quality of life.
Resources> Agency> Achievements (Pre/conditions) (Process) (Outcomes) Hence, resources, agency and achievements represents choices in empowerment model according to Naila Kabeer (1999a).
Resources are defined as the preconditions and catalysts for exercising choice (agency) and relate to material, personal, instrumental and social capacities that people can draw upon to secure their economic livelihood and general wellbeing. Resources are understood as ‘‘structural factors’’ and opportunity structures used in empowerment process. (Kabeer 2001). Agency refers to the ability of individuals and communities to recognize and act upon choices available to them, which are shaped and constrained by resources and opportunity structures, or structural factors (Kabeer, 1999). Agency can be understood as a process in which resources are mobilized in order to attain achievements.
Achievements relate to goals attained that may, in turn, generate more resources and opportunities for exercising agency (Kabeer, 1999). Achievements are the results of made choices and have psychological, social or economic outcomes (Kabeer, 2001). Achievements are also the link in the positive feedback empowerment cycle in which each successful exercise of agency that results in achievements allows for the accumulation of resources and further enhances agency. A more detailed discussion about empowerment theory will be provided at a later stage and will be reflected more in the next chapter below which is the analysis.
Further to this, the next chapter will describe the methodology used to understand this paper. 3. Methodology
As the concept of empowerment can be explored through three closely interrelated dimensions: agency, resources, and achievements, this paper will look at these three dimensions while connecting education to the framework of empowerment. This is because as seen in the literature review, it correlates with empowerment and migration to a very large extent. This chapter introduces the methodology used in the thesis and presents the collection of data gathered. The chosen methodology is a qualitative content analysis. The research aims to analyze the role of education in empowering migrant women for political and social development through the tool of empowerment theory of Naila Kabeer (1990, 12).
Furthermore, this chapter will describe the collection of data and its importance as a valid and coherent source in answering the research question. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is; examine whether the analysis can prove that resources, agency and achievements were met through education, and if migrant women in Sweden are believed to be capable of becoming socially and politically accomplished. Hence, the results of the methodology provide a deeper and clearer comprehension of the setting of the people studied (Taylor et al 2015, 95).
3.1 Data and Material
The selection of material and data for this study was based on the literature review and previous research. For this reason, this section will outline the different data chosen and on what basis they were chosen for this study.
3.1.1 Semi-structured interviews
Semi-structured interviews contain different number of interviews which are used to prepare questions with the aim to gain factual information and unstructured questions which lead to deeper comprehension of people´s experience (Halperin and Heath, 2012:258). According to May (2011:134) a semi-structured interview presents an understanding of how interviewees perform and deploy meaning in social life.
Interviews were chosen instead of questionnaires, as they are of great benefit as they provide an opportunity to build a relationship with the respondent. As people are more interested and ‘flattered’ to be interviewed than if they are asked to fill a questionnaire. Interviews make people feel important, because someone wants to meet and speak with them, therefore they value it more and treat it more seriously (Chambliss & Schutt, 2010:178). Response rates acquired from interviews are also higher than other survey designs (ibid). Standardization of structured interviews, which have a lack of sensitivity to validity in favor of excessive concern, the fluidity and flexibility of methods, such as semi-structured interviews, allow for greater validity and meaningful interviews (Mason 2002, 68).
In this paper, the interviews were conducted face to face in a carefully chosen environment in order to present the best conditions. They were conducted in quiet closed rooms within libraries, were there was a possibility to easily speak and record conversation. Notes were also taken to make sure nothing was missed. All the written notes and recording of interviews were saved. The semi structured interviews in contrast to structured interviews are not as restricted in style, which allows the possibility to generate personal information in relation to the questions (find in Annex). The questions were well focused and at the same time well
thought-out, in order to engage the interviewees in conversation. The time of each interview was approximately 30 to 45 minutes. The questions were formulated in order to examine the political and social development for migrant women from Baltic Western Countries after their study time in Sweden. The chosen research population was contacted by the researcher directly or via phone. They topic and the aim of the study was explained to them to gather the relevant information for the type of the research within this thesis. Moreover, the assurance of their anonymity was promised. The selected migrant women were chosen according to their relevance to the existing research.
To better understand the rationale behind the actors’ chosen and the role of the researcher, the next section will discuss that.
3.1.2 The Role of the Interviewees and the Researcher
The interviewees (speaker) were 6 adult women, who migrated from Baltic Western Countries (Poland, Russian Federation, Romania and Ukraine). They migrated to Sweden and received their higher education. The general purposes of the immigration of the actors were mainly based on economic issues. However, the exact reasons have not been developed within the study. They live permanently in Sweden; work within health, education and other sectors of the labor market. Four of them have family and children. In order to understand their background better Table 1 was created. It illustrates their age, years of study in Sweden, education and present occupation. These criteria were chosen in order to show the relevance of the collected data to this research. This study aims at demonstrating the empowerment by education migrant women, that way the sampling of higher educated migrant women from the selected Baltic countries was made. It is thus believed that these women are a good example of the situation at hand due to the fact that they are well educated and received their degrees from Sweden. Another reason for making these women the focus of this paper is because they were willing to be interviewed given the fact that they confide in the researcher. Further details were represented below in table 1 underlining the level of education of each migrant women, age, and profession.
Interviewee Age Country of Origin Highest Degree achieved from a Swedish University
Table 1: Overview of interviewee’s background information.
In this qualitative study, were data collection is gathered from semi- structured interviews, the role of the researcher is very important. This methodology includes the need for the interpretation of the data by the researcher, which is involved in intensive experience with the participants. That way it is very important that the researcher has past experiences with the research problem and participants (2014, 188). The researcher can relate to this notion as she is also a migrant of Poland and has been through the educational system in Sweden. This gives the paper more transparency, as she is able to sensitize with the interviewees. However, this causes various ethical and personal variations within the qualitative study of the thesis (Creswell 2014, 187). Since the researcher has experienced that higher education empower migrant women to become political and social agents, particular consideration will be given to assured biases to this study, as every effort will be made to ensure neutrality. Furthermore, these women were chosen based on the snowball technique where interviewees where recruited based on their acquaintances. Thus, the sample builds up and enough data are gathered with the intention to be a useful tool in the findings of this study (Bryman 2008). To better understand the choices made by the researcher and the limitations of this research, the next sections will provide ethical considerations that will follow the interviews and delimitations.
3.1.3 Ethical Consideration
As this paper is conducting and analyzing semi-structured interviews, it is important to take into consideration the ethical perspective. Since the researcher is based in Sweden, the ethical Speaker 1 35 Poland Master degree in Sociology Sociologist Speaker 2 31 Ukraine Master degree Environmental
Studies and Sustainability Science
Biologist
Speaker 3 33 Romania Bachelor degree in International Marketing and Brand Management
Sales Manager
Speaker 4 38 Russian Master degree in Environmental Engineering
Engineer
Speaker 5 29 Poland Master degree in Health and Care Nurse Speaker 6 36 Romania Master degree in Economy Economist
consideration will be based on the Swedish Research Council (Hermerén, 2011). The Swedish Research Council underlines four essential steps for conducting an ethical interview. Those 4 steps are of high importance, as they will be used in this paper for transparency. The first step is consent. The interviewee has the ability to choose if they wish to take part in the research study or not. Hence, the researcher needs to be aware of the capacity to collect knowledge, and make sure that the interviewee is informed about the objective of the research, and make them aware that they can choose to withdraw at any point during the interview. It is of extreme importance that force, pressure, and concealed information is not being used during the full extent of the interview (Hermerén, 2011:18). The second step is to ensure that no harm is being enforced such as stress and embarrassment. For this reason, the researcher should keep in mind not to ask too many personal or sensitive questions. The third step to keep in mind is privacy, as the participant has the right to be fully anonymous. The fourth and last step is deception meaning that the research does not have any right to misrepresent any information (Ibid).
3.2 Report: Migrant political participation: a review of policies and integration results in the OSCE region
Choosing this report, aims at presenting an overview of the academic literature, which addresses the question of how the educational inclusion/exclusion of migrants impacts their political participation (OSCE, 2017). Hence, it is believed that this report acts as a connection between the interviews and the empirical world. The importance of this report is that it provides evidence on the situation of migrant women in Europe in general with examples of the situation in Sweden. It examines closely the state of implementation and practice of the civic and political integration of migrants and identifies the key channels and actors active in this process (OSCE, 2017). One of the key channels identified in this report is education, which acts as a key catalyst for examining the research question at hand. Reiterating the above, the report will act as a connection between the interviews by providing the reader and researcher with an actual image of the situation. As this aims to promote an international approach of migrants in the socio-political life in Sweden and across Europe in general. However, this research also exhibits delimitation. For this reason, the next section will discuss the boundaries of this study and why certain decisions were made.
3.4 Delimitations
According to the literature review, the social or political participation of the migrant is affected by their educational inclusion or exclusion. Many scholars take for granted the role
of education, that facilitates actions understood to fall within this scope (Taylor and Francis 2019). For this reason, this thesis will focus on this notion and will outline the importance of education for migrant women as a tool for empowerment in the community. The reason for choosing just women for this study is because understanding the heterogeneity of migrant women and their experiences is essential as they still have a low presence when it comes to the political and social life of Sweden even though Sweden provides eligible policy. For this reason, it is believed that this paper will focus on giving insight to the empirical situation at hand. Hence, the interviews give the personal details about how and to what extent education empowers migrant women to become political and social agents. Additionally, the Report presents the solid evidence of the role of education in women immigrants’ life in a host country.
However, it is very important to stress that this study considers only a small group of migrant women (6 people) from Russia and Eastern Europe. It should be mentioned that a larger study could detect patterns that are not visible in this data. Moreover, this research does not consider other groups of migrant women in Sweden, such as women from African, Asian or other countries that may have received less positive benefits from education. Therefore, it is very important to say that we cannot generalize the results to the entire population of migrant women in Sweden because this research is based on a small particular sample group. Another limitation is the background of the researcher as this can influence the results by the presumptions that education empowers migrant women to become politically and socially active in community. However, this study is not trying to answer if education is the cause or a proxy for political participation, but rather to understand the role of education in political empowerment.
3.5 The Case of Sweden
Sweden has clear policies that promote gender equality and women’s empowerment and it has put in place powerful institutions for implementing these policies. For instance, gender division of unpaid family work (e.g. parenthood), equal opportunity between men and women with regard to education and labour market (Hudson and Rönnblom 2007). In the UNDP Human development Report (2013) Sweden is ranked seventh in the world in the 2012 Human Development Index. According to this report, Sweden is considered to be one of the greatest gender equality and gender empowered country in terms of legislation. Sweden has
ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) on 2nd July 1980. The Swedish Government did a great work to promote women’s enjoyment of human rights. The Swedish Government gender equality policy (Regeringskansliet, 2009) has as the overall objective to ensure that women and men have the same power to shape society and their own lives (Neset 2019).
Furthermore, in 2008, the Swedish government introduced a new integration policy whose main focus was to increase the supply and demand of labor, improve school quality and equality in school and better conditions for entrepreneurs (Lüken-Klaßen, 2009). According to the Swedish Ministry of Integration and Gender Equality (2009), the goal of immigrant integration policy in Sweden is to achieve equal rights, obligations and opportunities for all, independently of ethnic or cultural background.
However, despite the above- mentioned Sweden exhibits some weakness due to its multicultural society as the integration policy has been criticized and was found inefficient in addressing the social inclusion of immigrants as the immigrant population increased throughout the years (Koopmans 2010).
Another important aspect of the Swedish immigrant integration policies on the socio-economic position of immigrants is their degree of welfare-state ‘de-commodification’ (or ‘benefit generosity’), which ‘occurs when a service is rendered as a matter of right, and when a person can maintain a livelihood without reliance on the market’ (Esping-Andersen 1990, pp.21-22, cited in Koopmans 2010). According to Koopmans (2010) typology, the Swedish ‘social- democratic’ type of welfare has the highest levels of de-commodification compared to ‘liberal’ (lowest) and ‘conservative’ (intermediary) welfare types.
For this reason, it is believed that Sweden acts as a catalyst for studying the situation of migrant women in Sweden as it is pictured to be one of the best while it still faces some constrains in its laws and policies. This has been seen to increase in the last couple of years due to extensive migration. For this reason, it is believed that Sweden will be an interesting case, as this paper will examine the situation from the perspective of immigrant women by interviews.
The next section of this paper will explain how the process of coding will take place and what will be used as the coding schema to analyze the data using qualitative content analysis.
3.6 Qualitative Content Analysis and Coding
The researcher holds the responsibility to showcase the attached political and moral conditions with individual lives as the paper contains semi-structured interviews. Hence, it is important to expose the meaning, purpose, and motive behind the data chosen. For this reason, the paper will utilize content analysis, which is an activity in which the researcher examines objects of social communication (Lamont, 2015:89). For content analysis to be correctly conducted, it is important for the researcher to outline categories of interests as tools to be used. For this reason, the categories chosen in this paper have been designed by the literature review and theoretical framework. Table 2 predefines the three categories that will guide this paper in its analysis. Category 1: Collective resources, category 2: collective agency, and category 3: collective achievement. As such, the table below exhibits codes, which will be used as tools to track the categories to be able to conduct a coherent analysis as they exhibit their own specific discourse. For transparency reasons, the recording unit that will be used in this paper will be based on a single word. This is because it is believed that this unit is suitable for studying the language behind the words used accordingly (Halperin and Heath, 2012:321). Furthermore, the aim of this paper is to indicate patterns of social and political empowerment. Hence, all the transcriptions of the interviews will be studied to full extent.
To be able to conduct a successful content analysis, it is important for the reader to know how it is done. For this reason, the paper will following a coding scheme (Table 2) as it is believed that coding in political science covers a detailed identification of applicable text by applying labels represented by thematic ideas (Halperin and Heath, 2012:323). This is best done using closed coding which is grounded on the theory of this paper as well as the literature review (Ibid). For this reason, the coding process of this research will follow “X specifies Y”. For example, if participants answered that they are now more capable to see themselves as contributing to social and political engagement, then it will be coded as “political engagement” and placed under collective achievement. This will be done manually as the researcher does not want to miss any important features and concept occurrences. The researcher will record and take notes of the semi-structured interviews conducted face to face to later transcribe them. During this time, the researcher will also be reading the report to write down any interesting occurrences that might aid this study. Using different colored pens, the text will be marked and highlighted based on category. Category 1: “collective resources” in red, category 2: “collective agency” in yellow, and category 3: “collective
resources” in blue. When the researcher finds something interesting the recording unit will be spot and the code will be written in the margins of the given document/interview transcription.
To sum-up, the analysis of this paper will be based on indicating the paragraphs and words that exhibits characteristics of the categories of interest. Hence, for logical reasons, the analysis will be divided into the three categories and the interviews and report will be compared simultaneously.
Table 2: Predefined categories based on closed coding 5. Analysis
This chapter analyses the collected data with the aim to show that the three categories established from Kabeer’s empowerment theory: resources, agency, and achievements can be seen in between the lines of the interviews and the report. In order to conduct a cohesive research, content analysis method will be used as a research technique. This method will increase the validity of the research and the semi-structured interviews. The following chapter will be divided into three main sections. The first section aims to discus and analyze the semi-structured interviews that were conducted with migrant women. The second section investigates the report and connects it to the interviews, which are the source of empirical knowledge. At the end of each section a brief conclusion will be provided to later sum-up a detailed finding of the extent to which migrant women may feel empowered because of their higher education and knowledge to become active political and social agents in the Swedish community. Co llec ti ve R es ou rc es (P re -c on di ti on s) - Preconditions - School - Educational Level - Attainment - Training Programs - Skills Building Oportunities - Citizenship Knowldge - Income - Economic Self-Sufficiency Co llec ti ve A gen cy (P ro ce ss ) - Decision making - Negotiations - Resistance - Analysis - Capacity - Cognitive Processes of Reflection - Voice Co llec ti ve A ch ievem en t (O ut co m es ) - Capabilities - Functionings - Individual Preferences -Political Engagement - Social Engagement
5.1 Mapping the Interviews with migrant women in Sweden (28-36)
The interviews provide empirical data and present the opinion of the six migrant women. The interviewees will be referred to with numbers; i.e.: S1 = Speaker 1. This section will also be divided based on three categories deducted from Kabeer’s empowerment theory, underlined in table 3 above.
Before moving deeper, it is important to mention that the interviews found a pattern of similar words to explain the role of education in empowerment such as: Capacity building, advocacy, and sustainability. Furthermore, the paper will continue by discussing each category: resources, agency and achievements to present the relationship at the end. It is important to mention that each category will be divided to sub-categories, which underlines the basis of the analysis given the provided information from the interviews.
5.1.1 Investigating Resources
Kabeer’s empowerment theory includes three different dimensions: resources, agency and achievements. Resources are presented as preconditions to empowerment and includes material in the economic sense and on the sense of the different social and human resources that create the possibility to make choices. As Kabeer (1999b) mentioned, access to resources cannot be considered as an indicator of direct empowerment. Therefore, migrant women through their education enter into the labor market more equipped and knowledgeable, which allows them to gain economic resources. The regular labor wage and the control over the economic resources can be seen as a precondition for their empowerment. This makes them economically independent individuals, capable of supporting themselves, which strengthens their own self-confidence and self-value.
The possibility to gain income and be economically independent makes them strengthen their own value and self- confidence. This is evident in the interviews as women stressed on several key words such as income (S3), skills (S4), civil and citizenship knowledge (S1). For simplicity, the main single unit wordings found in the interviews that were represented in different sentences are outlined below with a thorough explanation.
5.1.2 The Discussion of Income
Starting with the analysis of the interviews it was very noticeable that many interviewees have underlined that higher education gave them the possibility to gain income, which is related to resources as presented in the literature review. The words mentioned by the majority of interviewees such as: independence, economic self- sufficiency, self-sustainability assumed
that most speakers were aware of their new economic possibility and increased political interest and social change through their newly gained independence and knowledge. This is specifically highlighted in S4, as she emphasized:
’’Before I didn’t have stable economy, but since I got educated I received employment and my income allowed me to feel economically secure and to have plans for future. This changed my life and now I am very much interested about politics in Sweden (S4)’’.
As it is presented higher education leads to a work place, which offers economic resources. Those economic resources increase the standards of life. When the basic needs are satisfied and the economic status is increased, then interest about the future and politics become important. The gain of economic resources leads to new interest about tax, which needs to be paid to the state. As a consequence, this increases interest about their political situation in the country, resulting in the individual becoming a more politically minded person. In contrary, loss of income as a consequence of unemployment boosts poverty and other difficult circumstances in life distract from things like political participation.
In this line the wage income is a very important economic resource within the transformation of migrants’ lives. It not only increases their position within family, but also their opportunity contribution to other sectors of the economy. Thus economic status leads to higher interest in politics in order to maintain the standards of life. It affects interest in politics and the interest within society as well. The people are more interested to engage in the existing community and this leads to political and social participation.
Furthermore, as (S1) stated:
‘‘I think that many migrant women want to gain education in order to develop themselves, and that money is not so important, however most often women want to get education in order to earn money and increase their income possibilities. Income possibilities give more horizontal view on one’s life. For me it changed my political preferences and engagement (S3)’’.
This quote suggests that income possibilities, which offers us many alternatives in life, can influence self- interest and political interest and can therefore be a driver of political behavior. In addition, since our economic resources allow us to volunteer and donate, they may be essential for participation. This way it increases chances in high- income families to have a better position to become active political and social agents within community.
As such, the next underlined word found within the interviews was skills, which will be further developed and highlighted below.
5.1.2 The Discussion of Skills
Resources include not only material resources in the more conventional economic sense but also various human and social resources, which serve to develop the ability to exercise choices (Kabeer 1999). Furthermore, resources are vital in the process of empowerment for migrant women. Resources in the broader sense of the word are acquired through a
multiplicity of social relationships conducted in the various institutional domains, which make up a society (such as family, market, community). Such resources may take the form of actual allocations as well as of future claims and expectations. Access to resources is designed in rules and norms, these norms and rules give certain actors authority over others in designing distribution and exchange within society like: heads of the household, the chiefs of firms, the main head of tribes, chiefs in organizations, elites and all in authoritarian position that decide about access to resources. Hence, the rules and norms enable or disable social resources for the individual (Kabeer 1999a).
Looking at the role of education and political, social participation another very fundamental factor in this relation exists. Skills are resources that definitively have a high effect in allowing people to become active political and social agent in the society. This is underlined as below:
‘‘I learn how to speak and write to people and how to work in an organizational setting. That way now I can take more easy stand in front of the group of people and be head speaker in
organized meeting within my job and community (S4)’’.
Hence, as seen education helps to develop linguistic skills: speaking, writing and reading. One of the skills for every citizen wanting to communicate well with others and influence them is a good language. Students learn to express themselves to groups of other students in the classroom, at the same time they are encouraged by teachers to present their own
perspectives, and defend their arguments. As a consequence they develop norms and habits of political expression, which are essential for conducting public debates with others. These skills are very important to build one’s own trust in political competence and in this same way they are the major factors that foster political and social participation.
‘‘First of all the education helped me to acquire the necessary skills like language skills, organizational skills and civic skills. These were so precious for me, since it removed my
barrier and opened up so many other possibilities ’’ (S3).
As we can see the acquired skills can give courage and self-image, which drives political and social participation. Those people learn how to speak to a group of people in different
background places and have experience in the ability to transmit their ideas to others. This way they experience greater confidence in playing one’s role as a citizen, and this creates greater commitment to fulfill norms that helps to be a good citizen. As well this place them in a place to desire political participation.
5.1.3. The Discussion of Civic Education
As we have seen education is a gateway to gain the resources like income and skills. However, there are other resources that play a very crucial role in empowering migrant women in Sweden to be politically and socially active. Examples that were given in the interviews were related to the development of their self- awareness of personal positioning and civic knowledge.
Education provides those women with various forms of civic and citizenship knowledge, which can strengthen their self-confidence and self-value. This not only helps migrant women to increase their possibility, but also to strengten power to exercise their own choices (Kabeer 1999b). Furthermore, the awareness of their personal positioning and civic knowledge helps to make reflections, which allows them to create changes. Thus, it is what Sen emphasizes, the expansion of people’s capabilities to have a life they value (Sen in Kabeer1999a). The capability, the possibility to choose the life the migrant women want are prescribed as a freedom. This freedom to design their own goals of life and attain them, can be built by public policy (Kabeer 1999a). As such,
’’I can truly say that the knowledge which I received during my study is my great treasure: it is priceless for me. I not only learn about my professional issues regarding engineering, but as
well I acquired civic knowledge related to different aspect of our life, like environmental, political, health or business one. It really made me to understand how complex is a political
Hence, it can be said, that this resource: civic education not only provides awareness about the political system in which people live, but at the same time it leads in more interest
capacity to participate and in this way increase participation in political life. Since it influence attitudes, values and people disposition it leads to voting and voter registration to signing petitions, contacting elected officials. Furthermore, education through civic knowledge teaches people very important democratic values:
’’Studies teach you how to interact with people and provides withgood citizenship knowledge how to cooperate. Usually you meet different typologies and get to work at group projects. It
really works for unity between diversity even at social level. We come together and learn how to lisen, communiciate, cooperate or give constructive critics to each other in order to
create our projects, everyone voice is important in a classroom (S1)’’.
Civic education plays very important role in political aspect because it promotes democratic values. Student learn that everyone voice is important and everyone has the right to express his opinion. This sheering their own opinion brings the group together and teaches to trust, that this group cooperation will work. This supports democratic values, social and
institutional trust and political efficacy. The current economic condition, assessment of governmental competence, and experiences with governmental authority is discussed. In this way people understand importance of democratization and the need to support it, what promotes democratic culture and enhance political and social participation.
‘‘During studies I learn to participate in the group projects. I learn that my voice is important and now I willingly take part in other local meeting in my community (S2)’’.
In this line, as it is emphasized the civic education creates the desirability of participation, which is important determinant for political participation. People who work in-group projects learn to speak their opinion and the importance of their voice. They actively participate and later they are more willing to participate in other groups meeting. Hence, desire for
participation develops and it allows them to become active social and political agent within their family, community and society. They become involve in groups and communicate ideas to other citizens, leaders or officials. As well they have competence in cooperating and
working with others in groups or organizations in order to establish their goals. This engagement of the individual brings the great probability for the political and social participation, especially when there is experience of high efficacy or the belief that one’s actions are important and can make a difference. This high efficacy makes impact on people,
because they believe that their effort will have tangible consequences and they voice or action influence the outcome. In this line those people are more likely to engage in any social
activity, which is political participation. So it is completely reasonable to believe that civic education predict political and social participation.
‘‘Education allowed me come to know many different people from all over the world. I think it was the most blooming time to come to know so many people. Through social media I still have contacts with some of them. I can truly say that these contacts help me to find my work.
It is great support to have many friends and be able to contact them when I need their help (S4)’’.
As well civic education leads to development of social network. Resources in this broader sense of the word are acquired through a multiplicity of social relationships conducted in the various institutional domains, which make up a society (such as family, market, school, community, work) (Kabeer 1999b).
People with higher level of resources and political interest will also more likely respond to participatory in different groups, organization and contact other people. They may be also motivated to succeed in society and have a need for sociability, which can also have a engaging outcome like: attending the local community meetings, taking part in meeting solving community problems, working in election campaign and contacting a local officials. The development of social network allows to communicate and to be enrich by others, this implies changes on individuals and prepares them for active participation.
To further understand and link Kabeer’s theory, the next section will discuss the wordings and analysis found within agency.
5.2. Agency: Decision-Making
While conducting the analysis it was evident that several words could be deduced from the interviews in relation to the table developed in the theory of empowerment. For this reason, the next sub-section will focus on these words and link them to the theory to answer the research question of this paper.
Education leads to acquiring many different resources, in this way empowering migrant women to engage in political and social participation. Education also leads to empowerment through agency. Agency: decision- making is very crucial for the empowerment process. Agency conceptualizes as the ability to design one’s goal and act in order to attain them
(Kabeer 1999a:21). Agency is about more than an observable action; it also encompasses the meaning, motivation and purpose, which individuals bring to their activity, their sense of agency, or `the power within' (Kabeer 1999b). This process is related to the power to choose goals and try to attain them; it includes action, motivation and meaning. However, it can also carry negative effects, such as violence, persecution and threat of other actor that exercise ‘power over’ (Ibid).
5.2.1. The Discussion of Decision Making
Migration of women from their own country to Sweden separates them from family. Enter into Swedish educational system and the responsibility as student increases their agency for decision- making and this is crucial for political and social participation. However, the process of empowerment measured in agency decision-making has different aspects of empowerment and explore various manifestations of agency, which can exist in practice. This section explores the correlations of agency in different context. The first section analyzes negotiation and resistance, next sections include discussion of voice, cognitive process of reflections and voice.
5.2.2. The Discussion of Negotiations
Discussion of negotiations were presented by second speaker:
‘‘Before my studies I was much more shy person, the work with students allowed me to be more open and now I feel more encouraged to decide for myself and negotiate my interest with others (S2)’’.
Scholars conceptualize agency in the decision- making, that can have different outcomes of negotiation and bargaining process, deception and manipulation form, subversion and
resistance as well as reflections and analysis procedures in individual and formal and informal groups (Kabeer 1999b). As we can see during classroom practices or small group cooperation students engage in dialogue with others and teachers, there is emphasized respect for their opinion. Although there are many different opinion how to deal with problem, there is a way to express oneself in creative critical thinking. Students learn that they can speak openly and everyone can express their opinion in this way the group projects learn students to discus and negotiate their goals. This is important factor that contribute to their empowerment for political and social participation.
