Paulo Freire wrote Pedagogy of the Oppressed in 1968. It is considered one of the most influential books on education in the 21st Century. According to Google Scholar, it is the third most cited book in the social sciences. In this book, Freire analyzes education from a critical perspective, meaning, I believe, from a perspective which challenges power structures. More specifically, Freire looks at oppressive structures in society through a classism lens. The word critical is used throughout the book, and is related to praxis, which refers to the action and reflection humans engage in as they attempt to transform their world. This transformation is the ultimate goal of the pedagogy suggested by Freire.

How does one go about transforming the current barriers (or limit-situations) that the oppressed face? Freire posits problem-posing education as a possible road to transformation. He contrasts this with the prominent banking model for education in which students are treated as objects, by which the educational experiences act on them, changing students to hold beliefs and views which keep the oppressed under the oppressors. This is de-humanizing because it removes freedoms owed to the oppressed. In order to overcome this, Freire suggests that we must align our efforts with the peoples’ ontological vocation to become more fully human. Now, I do not know what this means. But I have thought of this as returning the freedoms to the oppressed that have been lost due to their current barriers they face. To do this, we must recognize students as humans with agency, with the capacity to be free, to name, to know; to accomplish this, teachers must incorporate a human’s desire to be free within their pedagogy, restoring the lost freedom.

This is done through problem-posing education and critical praxis, action and reflection on the oppressive problems of the world in order to transform them. The oppressed must come to recognize their situation in the world, thus educators must present these oppressive situations to students as problems to be challenged, through action and reflection. If this action and reflection seeks to overcome power structures, then it is critical. Those who engage in critical praxis are becoming conscientização, or beginning to view the world in ways which uncover inequitable barriers. Is this process of critical praxis human’s ontological historical vocation? I don’t know. Regardless, this action and reflection cannot be done in a prescriptive manner but done with the oppressed. The oppressed capacity to name the world must be restored to align with their vocation for freedom.

When I was reading this book, I could not help thinking of John Dewey. Would he agree with Freire? To me, I see many concepts discussed by Freire which align with Dewey’s view of education. If I remember correctly, Dewey viewed school as an embryonic society, where students develop the necessary skills and capacities for engaging in society (1956). From this view, school and society are not separate entities, but school seeks to replicate society within itself, for the purpose of acting on that society. I think Freire takes this further, focusing on not only acting on society, but transforming it.

References

Freire, Paulo. (1968). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Seabury Press.

Dewey, J. (1956). The child and the curriculum; and the school and society. University of Chicago Press.