1 / 21

Advocacy or Education: Which Approach Is Best for Getting Involved in Family Policy?

Advocacy or Education: Which Approach Is Best for Getting Involved in Family Policy?. What Is Our Purpose Today?. The focus of this class is not WHAT to do, But rather HOW to do it. Why Is This Class Important to You?.

Sophia
Download Presentation

Advocacy or Education: Which Approach Is Best for Getting Involved in Family Policy?

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Advocacy or Education:Which Approach Is Best for Getting Involved in Family Policy?

  2. What Is Our Purpose Today? The focus of this class is not WHAT to do, But rather HOW to do it.

  3. Why Is This Class Important to You? Most professional roles can be approached from either an advocacy or educational perspective • Organizing Seminars • Preparing Handouts or Bulletins • Writing Press Releases • Teaching Workshops or Classes • Working with Coalitions

  4. Here’s What We’ll Cover Today • Define the advocacy and education approaches • Identify consequences of the advocacy and education approaches • Discuss how family professionals can sort out which approach to use

  5. Which Year Was This Statement Made? If the methods of social science were utilized, we could develop more scientific lawmaking. Legislatures could operate like laboratories with laws enacted as a “series of exhaustive experiments.” Lester Ward

  6. Which Year Was This Statement Made? The place of [experts] was “advisor to the leaders”…and politicians were free to use or reject that advice as they saw fit. “They were the leaders”…[and] “I was an intellectual.” John Commons

  7. Family Policy Advocacy To campaign for an underrepresented group or a particular policy alternative that may potentially enhance family well-being

  8. The Intent of the Family Policy Advocate Is to Persuade The aim is self-consciously to shape and influence the debate in line with a preconceived set of ideas or principles rather than simply to pursue research questions in whatever direction they may lead. (Smith, 1991, p. 206)

  9. Assumptions Underlying the Advocacy Approach • The role of values in the political process; • The fairness of the democratic system; and • The potential of timely action to shift the political balance of power

  10. Family Policy Alternatives Education Informs policy discourse by clarifying the potential consequences of several policy alternatives. The value judgments and ultimate decisions are entrusted to the people and to a number of policymakers elected to make these decisions rather than to a single person.

  11. The intent of the family policy educator is to educate by presenting research findings objectively without relaying personal preferences.

  12. Assumptions Underlying the Education Approach • A pluralistic view of society; • A belief in the democratic process; and • A recognition of the limitations of social science knowledge

  13. Scientific knowledge, the wisdom of the university, cannot be used to determine the 'correct' policy choice for society because science cannot supply the value judgments that rank the interests of one group as more important than the interests of another. Barrows, 1994, p.3

  14. Frequent Questions About the Education Approach • Is objective, bias-free policy education ever possible?

  15. Frequent Questions About the Education Approach • Is objective, bias-free policy education ever possible? • If education is as objective and unbiased as possible, is it a politically neutral act?

  16. What Are the Potential Consequences of the Advocacy Approach?

  17. What Are the Potential Consequences of the Educational Approach?

  18. Which Approach is Best? The most desirable approach depends upon: *The intended beneficiary *The issue *The professional’s job context *The professional’s communication style

  19. Would-Be Educators Need to Ask Themselves Three Questions: • Do I have the skills, ability, and knowledge to approach this issue from an educational perspective? • Do I want to work on this issue in a more neutral, scientific manner? • What could happen if I use the education approach improperly?

  20. The Bottom Line HOW we provide information to policymakers may be as important as WHAT we provide.

  21. Who Said This? I know no safe depository of the ultimate power of the society, but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.

More Related