Paulo Freire (1921- 1997) was a Brazilian educator

 

Introduction

Paulo Freire (1921- 1997) was a Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a leading advocate of critical pedagogy. He is best known for his influential work, pedagogy of the oppressed, which is generally considered one of the foundational texts of the critical pedagogy movement. His main work, the Popular Education pedagogy influences many educators all over the world who believe in education as a way of liberating poor oppressed people. One of the outcomes of Freire's work is a literacy method, developed in the 1960's (https://ptoweb.org/aboutpto/a-brief-biography-of-paulo-freire/).

Critical Pedagogy

He argues that through traditional education students were being ‘dehumanized’, and in order to reassert their own humanity, a different educational model was needed. In his critique of traditional pedagogy Paulo Freire talks about the ‘banking concept of education’. He points out that too often, students are asked to memorize and repeat ideas, phrases and formulas without understanding the meaning behind them. This process ‘turns [students] into ‘containers’ to be ‘filled’’ by the teacher. As a result, students are treated as objects, as receptacles to receive, file, and store deposits. Put simply, they become containers for what the teacher has deposits in their ‘banks’. ‘The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world’ (Freire, 1970).

Pedagogy of the oppressed

There is no such thing as a neutral education process. Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate the integrate of generations into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity to it, or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world (Freire, 1970).

The uniqueness of an individual philosopher so as to promote ways of preserving the ideas we need to live and grow

·         Open-mindness: Listen to all ideas

·         Skepticism: Not accept answer without question until justification

·         Systemic approach: Connect all beliefs and thoughts/logical organized

·         Basis in justifying reason: Information, explanation, reason why opinion is what it is

·         Universality: Same questions with different answers between place and time

·         World: Group of people who share the same system of meaning.

·         Philosophy: Love of wisdom, parent of all discipline, helps navigate questions

Through this uniqueness of being philosopher, the following are the ideas of Paulo freire’s of pedagogy of the oppressed in various contexts:

Paulo freire contributed a philosophy of education which blended classical approaches stemming from Plato and modern Marxist, post Marxist and anti-colonialist thinkers. His pedagogy of the oppressed (1968) can be read as an extension of or reply to Frantz Fanons the Wretched of the Earth (1961) which emphasized the need to provide native populations with an education which was simultaneously new and modern rather than traditional and anti-colonial not simply and extension of the colonizing culture (Freire, 1973).

In pedagogy of the oppressed Freire reprising the oppressors- oppressed distinction applies the distinction to education, championing that education should allow the oppressed to regain their senses of humanity in turn overcoming their condition. Nevertheless he acknowledges that for this to occur, the oppressed individual must play a role in their liberation.

Freire believed education could not be divorced from politics, the act of teaching and learning are considered political acts in and of themselves. Freire defined this connection as a main tenet of critical pedagogy. Teachers and students must be made aware of the politics that surround education. The way students are taught and what they are taught serves a political agenda. Teachers themselves have political notions they bring into the classroom. Freire’s method of conscientization centres around learners coming together in culture circles consisting of somewhere between 12 and 25 students and teacher, all involved in dialogue and learning with and from each other. They do not rely upon others, even teachers, to explain their oppressed circumstances. ‘Through dialogue, the teacher -of-the-students and the students-of the-teacher cease to exist and a new term emerges: teacher-student with students-teachers’. The reciprocity of roles means that students teach teachers as teachers teach students. Dialogue encourages everyone to teach and everyone to learn together. The oppressed thereby use their own experiences and language to explain and surmount their oppression (Freire, 1973).

Freire believed that “education makes sense because women and men are able to take responsibility for them as being capable of knowing that they know and knowing that they don’t.

No pedagogy which is truly liberating can remain distant from the oppressed by treating them as unfortunates and by presenting for their emulation models from among the oppressors. The oppressed must be their own example in the struggle for their redemption

Freire argues that that those in power expect education to reproduce the dominant interests and ideologies, but there is another task which education can accomplish. This is the task of human liberation. This pedagogy to end oppression, Freire writes, ‘must be forged with, not for, the oppressed’, irrespective of whether they are children or adults (Freire, 1973).

For Freire, education must be centered upon developing critically conscious, ‘humanized’, learners who act to liberate themselves, and the world, from injustice.

In Summary of Freire’s woks

·         He was critical of traditional modes of learning which her referred to as ‘banking’ education

·         Instead, he wished to develop education for critical consciousness leading to social transformation.

·         He believed a problem- posing pedagogy based on the learner’s present interests and experiences

·         The aim of education is humanization and liberation

·         This was to be attained through dialogue, critical inquiry and praxis

·         For Freire, education is never neutral. All education is political – either educating to support and maintain the status quo or helping to critique and change reality. Problem-posing education does not and cannot serve the interests of the oppressor.

·         His most famous work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed has influenced education all over the world

·         Freire worked primarily with illiterate adult peasants in South America, but his work has applications as well to schools and school-aged children. It is to be a pedagogy for all (Freire, 1970).

Conclusion

In terms of pedagogy, freire is best known for his attack on what he called the “banking” concept of education, in which students are viewed as empty accounts to be filled by teachers. He notes that “it transforms students into receiving objects and attempts to control thinking and action, leading men and women to adjust to the world, inhibiting their creative power”. The basic critique was not entirely novel and paralleled Rousseau’s conception of children as active learners as opposed to a tabularasa view, more akin to the banking model. John Dewey way also strongly critical of the transmission of mere facts as the goal change, stating that “education is regulation of the process of coming to share in the social consciousness and that the adjustment of the individual activity on the basis of this social consciousness is the only sure method of social reconstruction”. Freire’s work revived this view and placed it in context with contemporary theories and practices of education laying the foundation for what would later be termed critical pedagogy.

 

 

 

REFERENCE

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Penguin

Freire, P. (1973). Education for Critical Consciousness. Seabury Press