Our western social structure, being predominantly patriarchical, hierarchical and economistic, contributes to the disadvantage and disempowerment of both adult literacy students and teachers. The principles that contribute to this disadvantage and disempowerment that I focus on are: individualism, scarcity paradigm and deficit perspective. This literature review will demonstrate how these three principles are woven through our western culture's dominant perspectives of power and within discourse on literacy and education.

In particular, I want to illustrate how the notion of individualism prevails within traditional power theories and within the dominant ideologies of education and literacy discourse. I will show how this notion of individualism contributes to the placement of the adult literacy learner at the bottom of the heap and helps to lock the positions of Teacher = Power + Authority, and Student = Learning + need for empowerment.

Definitions & Theories of Power in Relation to Education

Power is a complex and multi-layered concept. A basic definition of power is the capacity to act. The capacity to act may mean exercising influence or making decisions that affect one's own life and that affect the lives of others. Generally, writings about power differentiate between power as a possession and power as relational. As well, there are traditional theories of power over, and feminist theories of power with and power through. It is important to look at the underlying values and worldviews of these differing perceptions of power to understand how the principles of individualism, scarcity and deficiency are entwined within those perceptions.

Power over, or power as property, is a view that sees power as something that can be possessed and owned, a commodity that can be taken from place to place. Power is understood as finite and is divided up among individuals and groups. The ones who have power gain power through their position within an organizational structure. Leaders are seen to possess more power than followers. Hierarchical and authoritarian structures work to lock power relations and power ownership through positions and roles. Power exercised as property comes to mean power over and has been the traditional concept of how power relations work.

The notion of power over is the mainstay of traditional power theories where the focus is on the formal positions of individuals and the structure of organizations. Traditional power theorists present static views of organizational power, such that people who occupy higher positions in organizations wield more power (Retelle 2003). Traditional power theories are zero sum theories; that is, power is seen as finite where whatever one gains, another loses (Burbules 1986).