Using the Empowerment Model to Develop Sex Education for Native Americans

Abstract

This paper describes a case study of Paulo Freire's empowerment model used with a small community in the Cherokee Nation to develop a sex education curriculum. Data indicated that the curriculum process empowered people, helped uncover sociocultural issues that affect behavior, and emphasized the collective knowledge that emerges when a group shares experiences. This curriculum was more culturally sensitive than others because participants decided the issues of interest to them and developed an action agenda. The social action component made it very different from other reviewed curricula. Historical considerations found that the model is congruent with some Cherokee traditions: attention is paid to process more than the end product, dialoging is similar to traditional storytelling, and participatory education is similar to early Cherokee government. The researcher developed cross-cultural understanding by working with the people to search for the program and learned that many sex education materials cannot be applied cross-culturally with this Native American group.