A Review of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed Essay

Few teachingal thinkers grow been more widely influential than Paulo Freire. His clanic text, educational activity of the oppressed, has been examine by numerous Left intellectuals, organisational activists, native educationists and liberation theologians for about four decades. Freires ideas and theories shoot been applied by academics, school teachers, adult literacy coordinators, church leaders, counselors, psychologists, kindly workers, health professionals, language eruditeness specialists, and prison replenish ment workers, among others.In addition, Freire has inspired (directly or indirectly) thousands of books, articles, interviews, theses, videos, and even theater productions over the years. When he died on 2 May 1997 Freire left an extensive body of write work and a legacy of memorable educational and semipolitical achievements. In this light, this paper reassessments and critiques Pedagogy of the oppress and how this book relates to my work as an simple-m inded teacher. Overview of the BookDrawing on his experiences with rural peasant comm unities and the urban miserable in Brazil and Chile, Freire theorized an intimate connection in the midst of education and the parade of becoming more fully human. Chapters 1 and 3 of Pedagogy of the crush set out Freires ontological and ethical ideas in ecumenical and lucid detail, and Chapter 4 provides an extensive consideration of the politics of domination at a macro level. The preaching of education is primarily located in Chapter 2, and literacy does non figure as prominently as it does in a number of Freires other texts.Pedagogy of the loaded develops the distinction between banking education and problem-posing education. Freire rejects a banking beat of the teaching process in kick upstairs of a problem-posing approach, and encourages students to adopt a curious, questioning, probing stance in exploring educational issues. Freirean education demands a deep commitment to the goal of building a better social being, and necessitates active resistance against oppressive structures, ideas, and praxiss (Roberts, 2000).Some of the theoretic beas explored in Pedagogy of the Oppressed include questions about structure and asperity in liberating education, the nature of unfavourable reading and writing, legitimate and oppressive uses of consent in the schoolroom, and the process of study. Freire also explores the role of intellectuals in resisting dominant ideas and practices, dialectic thinking and education, the dynamics of dialogue, the distinction between facilitating and teaching, and the bearing language difficulties have on education.In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire writes that most of Latin Ameri send words living in economic and politically dependent part-societies feel powerless and have internalized the persuasion groups view of them as unalterably stupid. Before participate in the finishing groups, words and other codifications in movies an d television are seen by them as tools that can be wielded by the rich and stiff only, while they are fated to be objects of culture. This attitude changes as they wrick conscious of their feelings and social position.Then they begin to see that their condition worsens if they put forward to the seductions of the modern consumer culture, spending what little m atomic number 53y they have for packaged fun and manufactured goods. They discover they are giving up their birthright as creators of culture, turning against their own art and artisan work to gain the conjury of interest in the modern society. They are further motivated as they discover that only they can codify their unique experience.In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire reports that after analyzing the unreal and sometimes contemptuous messages in many measuring rod texts available to them, they want to bring in their own texts. Critique Freire views mans nature which is humanistic and optimistic. For Freire, educat ion is humanizing when it is critical, dialogical, and praxical (Roberts, 2000). Man is unique among animals in his baron to shape himself and his environment. While all things change, only man is a purposive agent in change. Mans nature is to continually create himself through an interactive process of purposive reflection and action in life situations.Wherever these two aspects of human behavior are divorced, men are victims of a social system which encourages them to see themselves as acted upon, dormant things, rather than subjects who act upon the world. Conforming, apathetic behavior is the evidence of repressive relationships. eudaimonia programs which rob men of their initiative amount to false generosity. For Freire, education should summation political consciousness. In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, he argues that the oppression of peasants is partly retained by their acceptance of their situation as an unalterable fact of existence.Freire feels that this fatalism refle cts an incorporation of the oppressor thus, the oppressed is non for himself, but is ambivalent or even uncongenial to the idea of liberating himself. For this reason, liberation cannot be given to the oppressed rather, the oppressed as an organized collective must take an active part in liberating themselves (Pitts, 1972). According to Torres (1993) Freires global purpose transcends a criticism of the underway educative forms, and goes on to virtually become a criticism of culture and the construction of knowledge.In short, the basic assumptions of Freires works lie in a dialectical epistemology for interpreting the development of human consciousness in its relationships with reality. (p. 125) For Freire, the primary problems and issues of education are not pedagogical issues. Instead, they are political issues. The schooling system does not change society instead, society can change the schooling system. However, the educational system may play a vital role in a cultural revo lution, which implies the conscious participation of the masses.As a cultural praxis, critical teaching method contributes to lifting the ideological cloud in peoples consciousness. In addition, revolution itself is a meaning(prenominal) pedagogy for the masses Freire has spoken of revolutions as a continuing political workshop. Freires proposal is an anti-authoritarian though directivist pedagogy, where teachers and students are teaching and learning together. Since education is the act of knowing, teacher-student and student-teacher should engage in a permanent dialogue characterized by its horizontal relationship, which does not preclude power imbalances or different fooling living experiences and knowledge.This is a process taking place not in a classroom, but in a cultural circle. There is not a discursive knowledge but a knowledge scratch from the living everyday and contradictory experience of teachers-students/students-teachers. Certainly this set of notions dismantles the most important framework of authoritarian pedagogy and, to this extent, appears as a counter-hegemony practice and ideology within teacher training institutions. (Torres, 1993, p. 126) One thing I like about Pedagogy of the Oppressed is that the oppressed are not seen as a passive force.In the book, Freire states that oppression must terminate and it can but the oppressed must liberate themselves. How can the oppressed, as divided, unauthentic beings, participate in the pedagogy of their liberation? According to Freire, for them to be able to wage the struggle for their liberation, peasants and urban poor must discriminate the reality of their oppression not as a closed world from which there is no exit but as a confining situation which they can transform.The problem that arises from banking education is that the ruling classes are not merely contented with the defense of their material privileges they also insist on the preservation of their cultural hegemony. The culture that co-exists with their economic dominance is angiotensin converting enzyme that demands silence, fatalism, superstition, self-contempt, subservientness and all forms of false consciousness on the part of the masses. Education provided by these dominant classes must therefore be authoritarian and banking education. How then is one to carry out Freires program under the existing social order?Freire is aware of the problem and the further one reads, the more one senses that the Pedagogy of the Oppressed is really written for subversive elements already in action (Mkandawire, 1975). Freires egalitarian methodology for education as espoused in Pedagogy of the Oppressed is intended to be politically subversive of oppressive regimes. It seems likely, however, that it could serve to legitimate opposition to any routinized form of delegated authority. For Freire, development is nonmaterial, and the unit of development is not the nation but the individual.For these reasons, it is unlike ly that any government will attempt to follow Freires methodology to its most radical implications (Pitts, 1972). The Pedagogy of the Oppressed has attracted many criticisms over the years. Those who consider education as a technical or neutral process have complained that Freires approaches politicize teaching and learning. Freires refusal to provide packages has irritated those who seek trig methodological solutions to educational problems (Roberts, 2000). The use of the male pronoun in Pedagogy of the Oppressed and other early writings has been particularly attacked.Also, the idea of promoting a critical mode of consciousness has been questioned. Furthermore, Freires focus on social class (at the expense of gender and ethnicity) in his early analyses of oppression has been rendered problematic by a number of contemporary educational theorists. Others suggest that Freire should have apply more space in his books to class theory. Some critics have argued that the pedagogy propose d by Freire, contrary to its professed aims, constitutes a form of cultural invasion.Finally, as post-modern ideas have gained increasing currency in recent times, universalist assumptions in Freires ethic, epistemology, and pedagogy have come under fire. Despite these criticisms, it is undoubted that Pedagogy of the Oppressed has left an important legacy to education. Application Freire k impudently the world and problems of teachers regarding pedagogy. The Pedagogy of the Oppressed answers my questions on how to can my students to become self-motivating learners. I learned that I could not move them. Following Freires pedagogy, teachers could only help their students learn to move themselves.The thoughts conveyed in the book are indeed seditious but they did not transform me overnight. However, Freires theories have planted on me seeds of a new way of thinking. Upon reading the book, I realized that the learners and their mindset is more complete than the curriculum not more im portant, it is just more fundamental. In addition, I learned that ones view of the world determines what can be learned. According to the book, learning is dependent on environment and emotion as well as on presentation, materials, and text.Importantly, the Pedagogy of the Oppressed suggests the danger to learning of oppression in the classroom environment. Thus, there should be no power structure in the classroom as the teachers and the students are both learners in this environment. Accordingly, instruction manual and curriculums should be oriented towards the learners creating and solving their own problems. In other words, knowledge construction and collaborative learning are encouraged. Conclusion This paper has reviewed Freires Pedagogy of the Oppressed and how this book relates to my work as an elementary teacher.This discussion of Freires ideas on formal education has been brief and selective. In so being, it does not communicate the immense richness of his thoughts on such matters as the universal nature of mans humanity Freires rejection of and banking model of the teaching process in favor of a problem-posing approach. However, if the readers have gained from this review some appreciation of how Freires thoughts are applied in the classroom environment, the review will have served its purpose.