Social Change and Advocacy

Social Change and Advocacy

            Social change is defined as a transformation of the behavior of a community. Social change is characterized by changes in cultural symbols, rules, and mechanisms of society. Social change can be brought by the interaction of a particular community with another community where one community starts emulating the behaviors of another population hence bringing about social change. Advancement in technology and industrial revolution can also result in social change (Faleye, 2013:13). Social change can also evolve from economic and political movements. Social change can bring positive and negative impacts on society. Only social change with a positive influence on the nation should be accepted.

Usually, social change destroys something old and replaces it with a new one. It is not necessarily that the new thing being introduced is better than the old one which was in existence, whenever a fundamental behavior in a community is destroyed by social change and not adequately replaced then the space left behind results in malpractices in the society such as drug trafficking and money laundering.

Social change is simply changing the culture of a community. Therefore, only the positive changes in the city should be embraced (Akujobi, 2017,22)

. Before any change is accepted in the society, the consequences which it can bring should first be examined to ensure that only changes with positive impact in the nation are accepted. Mary Slessor, a missionary to Nigeria, brought a social change in Nigeria. She campaigned against the killing of the twins in the country. Mary Slessor adopted the children who were termed as evil in society. In the process, the people in this country changed from the behavior of killing twin children to love them.

Advocacy can simply be defined as a process of influencing the policies and decisions of society (TED Talk, 2014).. To influence the policies, a long process is included which includes undertaking media campaigns, conducting research and public speaking.

Advocacy is a strategic plan to influence policies, and therefore it includes two phases: advocacy planning and advocacy activity. Advocacy planning involves setting the goals, selecting the target group and selecting the appropriate influencing strategies. Advocacy activity is the process of implementing the procedure to ensure that the policies in the target are influenced. The primary objective of any form of advocacy is to ensure that the voice of the local members of the society is heard and their rights respected. For example, the campaign against gender discrimination is advocacy to ensure that the rights of all women in the world are respected. This advocacy to ensure gender equality ensures that women have the same chances to be employed everywhere in the world according to their qualifications.

Human rights defenders all over the world advocate the protection of rights of different groups of people — for instance, advocacy to achieve gender equality. Advocacy ranges from country level to the international level. The process of implementing advocacy has several steps, and the individuals involved face several challenges in the process. For instance, individuals advocating to achieve gender equality may be discriminated in the society and also be threatened in the process.

In sum, social change is the process of transforming a specific behavior in the community to another one. To achieve progress in a given nation, the social change which transforms an evil culture in the society to a better culture should be embraced. Advocacy is the process of influencing the policies of a community. Any advocacy should be designed such that it ensures that the rights of all members of the community are respected.

Faleye, O.A. (2013) Western Education and Social Change in Nigeria: The Case of Ekiti land in   the Twentieth Century. Journal of Educational Research. 16(2), pp.12-20. Available at:             https://www.questia.com/library/journals/1…-social-change-in-nigeria (Accessed:    05/03/19)

The People’s Peacemaking Perspectives Project Advocacy Capacity Building: A Training Toolkit. Available at: https://www.c-r.org/downloads/PPP Advocacy Training Handouts-            .pdf (Accessed: 05/03/19)

Chavez, C., (2007). Exercise: Identifying Social Change, Social Justice, and Social Services          Necessary Components to Becoming a Social Change Leader. pp.1–16. Available at:             http://www.leadershipparadigms.com/docs/SOCIAL.pdf.

Fullan, M., G., (1993). Why Teachers Must Become Change Agents. Educational Leadership,      50(6), pp.12–17. Available at: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational- leadership/mar93/vol50/num06/Why-Teachers-Must-Become-Change-Agents.aspx.

International Labour Organization, (2019). Teachers, educators and their organizations as agents of social change. International Labour Organization.

Meyers, L., E., Holbrook, T., and May, L., A., (2009). Beyond Heroes & Role Models: Using       Biographies to Develop Young Change Agents. Early Childhood Education Faculty          Publications. 21(2), pp.10–14. Available at:        https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=ece_facpub.

Sharma, R., R., (2012). An Introduction to Advocacy. Training Guide. Available at:             https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/node/1981/pdf/1981.pdf.

TED Talk, (2014). Education for social change. Artika R. Tyner, United States: YouTube.            Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5QHAhMYwoA.