The Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Paulo Freire The Pedagogy of the Oppressed

The Pedagogy of the Oppressed is one of the most relevant books in Education of the last century. It was first published in 1968 in Brazil, having his translation and publication done in English in 1970.

Paulo Freire analyzed the education system prevailing at that time in his natal Brazil, but was until his pass in Chile, as a result of his exile from Brazil, that he wrote this book which has been considered one of the most important books in Education.

The content of the book has different readings, according to the approach the reader gives to it, and goes from philosophy, linguistics, sociology, political sciences, psychology, of course education, among others.

It has been until the last decade of the past century that Western European and North American Universities started to incorporate the analysis of Freire's work into their programs. For a long time was sub-estimated or hard to accept in this societies, as Donaldo Macedo stands in the book's introduction, “... to read Paulo Freire, in our so-called open societies his work suffers from a more sophisticated form of censorship: omission.” (Freire; 16) The main reason for this could be that he did reflect on the struggle of classes; moreover, he unveiled the contradiction Oppressor-oppressed, and couldn't be convenient for those societies mention above; anyhow, on a personal impression, I think that Freire's work is a must for every student on the no formal sciences' programs on higher education.

“ Freire's denunciation of oppression was not merely the intellectual exercise that we often find among many facile liberals and pseudo-critical educators. His intellectual brilliance and courage in denouncing the structures of oppression were rooted in a very real and material experience, as he recounts...” (Idem;12)

To cover the whole book in one hour talk is frankly impossible; therefore, I have tried to select some of the concepts that he coined in this book, as a guide for our talk, even though, I won't be able to cover every single one of them, might be useful to have them on this handout for future interests.

Pedagogy: Greeks roots that means “to lead a child” from pais=child and ago=to lead. On a more academic definition we can find that is a discipline that deals with the theory and practice of education.

Oppressed: dehumanized subjects acting as mere objects.

Oppressor: who prevents people from being more fully human.

The most important concept has to be consciousness, in Portuguese:

Concientização: learning to perceive social, political and economic contradictions, and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality. (Idem: 35)

The book aims to the engagement of the reader with this term, which refers to the way that human beings create, transform reality through critical thinking, not only being in the world but being with the world and others.

Praxis: reflection and action directed at the structures to be transformed.

Reality/World: is a problem to be worked on and solved, it is the material used by man to create history. (Idem;32)

Men's Ontological Vocation (as he calls it): is to be a subject who acts upon and transforms his world, and in so doing moves toward ever new possibilities of fuller and richer life individually and collectively. (Idem;32) Freire Page 1 The Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Subjects: who know and act.(idem;36)

Objects: are known and acted upon.(idem;36)

Dialogical Teaching: the fundamental goal is to create a process of learning and knowing that invariably involves theorizing about the experiences shared in the dialogue process. (Idem;17)

According to Freire we have to engage in dialogue because we recognized the social character of the process of knowing. After all, communication wouldn't be possible without the presence of someone else; therefore, the individualistic character of that process is merely a monologue on which the construction of learning/knowing is quite impossible.

Epistemological curiosity must exist prior dialogue itself. “That is to say, dialogue most require an ever-present-curiosity about the object of knowledge. Thus, dialogue is never an end in itself but a means to develop a better comprehension about the object of knowledge”. (Idem;18)

Theory and practice are the elements of the process of knowing, and they have to be considered as a unity through the epistemological curiosity and a certain conviviality with the object of knowledge under study.

The process of learning and knowing depend on the progressive character of knowledge itself; that is, the previous acquired knowledge has to be present on the mental structures of the student in order to unveil the new object of knowledge.

In order to become more fully human, we have to get rid of dogmatism in which learning and knowledge are presented as static reality, there is only an imposition of the explanation of the world; therefore assumes irrational positions that reject dialogue.

Sectarianism, fed by fanaticism is always castrating. Radicalization nourished by a critical spirit, is always creative. Sectarianism mythicizes and thereby alienates; radicalization criticizes and thereby liberates. Radicalization involves increased commitment to the position one has chosen, and thus ever greater engagement in the effort to transform concrete, objective reality. Conversely, sectarianism it is mythicizing and irrational turns reality into a false (and therefore unchangeable) “reality”. (Idem; 37)

When someone engage in the commitment of liberation of the oppressed has to engage with a radical position towards reality; moreover, can't remain passive while facing oppression. Pedagogy of the oppressed is a task for radicals.

Sectarianism Leftist Rightist Goes totally astray when attempts to interpret reality and Wants to slow down the historical process, to “domesticate” history dialectically, and falls into essentially fatalistic time, men and women. positions. Each considers anything that is not his truth a lie. Both suffer from an absence of doubt. (idem; 39)

The more radical the person is, the more fully enters into reality so that, knowing it better, can better transform it. Doesn't consider the proprietor of history or of people, or the liberator of the oppressed.

Chapter 1

In this chapter Paulo Freire presents the philosophical bases of his pedagogy. The axiological input is very strong as it follows the interest of the ontological and historical conditions of the societies of oppression, among those he stands for

Freire Page 2 The Pedagogy of the Oppressed humanization as fundamental goal of education. That put immediately on the analysis the concept of dehumanization, which is the condition of the oppressed. “Concern for humanization leads at once to the recognition of dehumanization, not only as an ontological possibility but as an historical reality.” (Idem; 43)

While a person realizes his/her own incompletion as a human beings there is no other alternative than humanization or dehumanization; anyways, only the first alternative is on his/her vocation.

That is the reality of the oppressed, his deep condition of misery, the loss of his nature, the imposition of a world on which creativity seems to be a privilege, and not his/her essence. Dehumanization does not only mark the oppressed but the oppressors as well, those who has stolen humanity. Both are in the same distortion of the vocation of becoming more fully human. “This...dehumanization.., is not a given destiny but the result of an unjust order that engenders violence in the oppressors, which in turn dehumanizes the oppressed.” (Idem; 43)

The task for the oppressed is humanistic and historical, they have to conquered their own liberation, but as well as the oppressors.

There is a contradiction in which the oppressed in the struggle to become more fully human tend themselves to become oppressors, or sub-oppressors. Their ideal is to be men/women; but for them, to be that is to be oppressors. That is their model of humanity, it is an individualistic vision of men/women.

“The term contradiction denotes the dialectical conflict between opposing social forces.” (Idem; 46) T

The fear of freedom is to be found in both, oppressors and oppressed, the first are afraid to embrace freedom, the later, of losing the freedom to oppress.

Prescription: One of the basic elements of the relationship between the oppressor and oppressed. Represents the imposition of one perception of reality upon another, alienating the consciousness of that one who receive the prescription reality.(idem; 47)

We can't pretend to liberate the oppressed when we just switch one truth for another, while we prescribe one reality for another. Freedom is the essential condition for humanization, is an indispensable condition for the quest for human completion. That is, in order to know better the reality, we have to encourage the oppressed to think through creation their own reality, of course, bonded within the ethical history of mankind.

The pedagogy of the oppressed is an instrument for their critical discovery that both they and their oppressors are manifestations of dehumanization. Existential duality of the oppressed, who are at the same time themselves and the oppressor whose image they have internalized. The pedagogy of the oppressed present itself as pedagogy of humankind. The oppressed have to cut of the duality in which to be is to be like, and to be like is to be like the oppressors. The solution to that contradiction is to be find in all humans creating a process to achieve freedom.

Only if they perceive the reality of oppression not as a closed world from which there is no exit, but as a limiting situation which they can transform; furthermore, only when this perception enrol them on the struggle to free themselves.

To achieve the transformation of the oppression circumstances of reality it is need a constant dialectical relationship between objectivity and subjectivity. Neither can exist without the other, nor can be dichotomized.

Let’s consider three main models of the process of knowledge, three ways in which human kind produces the explanation of reality.

Subjectivism is the philosophical tenet that our own mental activity is the only unquestionable fact of our experience.

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Objectivism is the philosophical tenet that reality exists independently of consciousness.

Historical Materialism is the philosophical tenet that reality is a constant transformation in which consciousness and the material world are in a permanent spiral of evolution.

Thus, in dialectical thought reflection is essential to action. The pedagogy of the oppressed, which is the pedagogy of people engaged in the fight for their own liberation has its roots in praxis. (Idem; 53)

The correct method for a revolutionary leadership to employ in the task of liberation is, therefore, not “Libertarian Propaganda”. Nor can the leadership “implant” in the oppressed a belief of freedom, thus thinking to win their trust, the correct method lies in dialogue. The conviction of the oppressed that they must fight for their liberation is the result of their own “concientização”. (Idem; 67) And that has to be as Subjects, not as objects. They have to cease to be things and fight as men and women.

A revolutionary leadership must accordingly practice co-intentional education, teachers and students, cointent in reality, are both subjects, not only in the task of unveiling that reality, and thereby coming to know it critically, but in the task of re-creating that knowledge (idem; 69)

Chapter 2

The teacher-Student relationship it has a fundamental narrative character. Teacher Students Narrative Subject Listening Objects Depositor Depositories  Talks about reality as given (motionless, static,  Memorized mechanically that given reality. predictable)  Containers, receptacles to be filled.  Alien topics.  Task: to fill the students mind without significance.  Empty words. Content of Learning lifeless/petrified contents whether values or empirical dimensions of reality

“The outstanding characteristic of this narrative education, then, is the sonority of words, not their transforming power” (idem; 71)

“ Education thus becomes an act of depositing instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiqués and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize and repeat. This is the Banking concept of education, in which the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filling, and storing deposits”. (Idem; 72)

“ For apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, individuals cannot be truly human. Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other. (Idem; 72)

“In the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing”. (Idem; 72)

As the contradiction oppressor-oppressed negates the men's ontological vocation, in the same way, the ideology of oppression perms to the Teacher-Students contradiction, and on this case, negates education and knowledge as a process of inquiry.

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The base of the pedagogy of Liberation is the reconciliation of that contradiction, in which the teachers learn while they are teaching, and the students teach while they are learning.

Thus, we can take from this banking concept of education that the process to engage with critical thinking, consciousness is absent on the system of education.

Education can't provide learning or knowledge when the students are mere objects on that process. I refer to the learning and the knowledge which are needed to transform reality.

“Implicit in the banking concept is the assumption of a dichotomy between humans and the world: a person is merely in the world, not with the world or with others; the individual is spectator not re-creator”. (Idem; 75)

“It follows logically from the banking notion of consciousness that the educators role is to regulate the way the world “enters into” the students mind”(idem; 76)

“The educated individual is the adapted person, because he or she is better “fit” for the world...this concept is well suited to the purposes of the oppressors, whose tranquility rests on how well people fit the world the oppressors have created, and how little they question it...The theory and practice of banking education serve that end quite efficiently” (idem; 76)

“ Yet only through communication can human life hold meaning...authentic thinking, thinking that is concerned about reality, does take place in communication”.(idem; 77)

“Authentic liberation-the process of humanization-isn't another deposit to be made in men, Liberation is a praxis. The action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it”.(idem; 79)

Thus, in the banking education there isn't a real communication, as only one part of that process possesses the right for speaking, to mention the world which is already done. At the moment the teacher expounds the content of learning avoiding a much necessary feedback from it students, is avoiding the real process of communication for education as well.

“Those truly committed to liberation...must abandon the educational goal of deposit-making and replace it with the posing of the problems of human beings in their relations with the world. “Problem Posing” education, responding to the essence of consciousness-intentionality- rejects communiqués and embodies communication”(idem; 79)

“Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transfers of information: (idem; 79)

“In the problem-posing education through dialogue a new term emerges: teacher-student with students-teachers...on this process, arguments based on “authority” are no longer valid; in order to function, authority must be on the side of freedom, not against it” (idem; 80)

Banking Concept Problem-Posing Educator Role Educator Role  Has 2 stages; prepare his lessons; expounds about  Is cognitive all the time, no dichotomy. it.  Cognizable objects/reflection of both (T-S).  Preservation of knowledge and culture.  Create with students knowledge in logos.  Deposit-form the mind to receive doxa knowledge.

Method Method  Inhibits creative power, maintains submersion of  Involves constant unveiling of reality. Strives for consciousness. the emergence of consciousness and critical intervention of reality (contextualization).

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 Practice of Domination.  Practice of Freedom

 Mythicizing reality.  Demythologizing reality.

“Education as a practice of freedom considers people in their relations with the world. In these relations consciousness and world are simultaneous: consciousness neither precedes the world nor follow it”.(idem; 81)

“In problem-posing education people develop their power to perceive critically the way they exist in the world with which and in which they find themselves”. (Idem; 83) Reality in process, in transformation.

“The teacher-student and the students-teachers reflect simultaneously on themselves and the world without dichotomizing this reflection from action, and thus establish an authentic form of thought and action”.(idem; 83)

Banking Concept Problem-Posing  Resist dialogue.  Dialogue indispensable to cognition which unveils  Students objects of assistance. reality.  Inhibits and domesticates consciousness.  Makes students critical thinkers.  Deny ontological and historical vocation of  Bases itself on creation reflection and action upon becoming more fully human. reality.  Banking theory and practice as immobilizing and  Engaged authentic beings in inquiry and creative fixating forces, fail to acknowledge men and transformation. women as historical beings.  Theory and practice take people's historicity as  Emphasizes permanence and becomes reactionary. their starting point.  Roots itself in the dynamic present and becomes revolutionary. “The unfinished character of human beings and the transformational character of reality necessitate that education be an ongoing activity.”(Idem; 84) “Problem-posing education affirms women and men as beings who transcend themselves, who move forward and look ahead...for whom looking at the past must only be a means of understanding more clearly what and who they are so that they can more wisely build the future.”(Idem; 84)

“...the point of departure must always be with men and women in the here and now.”(Idem; 85) “...the world-no longer something to be describe with deceptive words-becomes the object of that transforming action by men and women which results in their humanization.”(Idem; 86)

Freire, Paulo. The Pedagogy of the oppressed. Bloomsbury, USA, 2015.

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