Pedagogy of the Oppressed
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Pedagogy of the Oppressed is the most widely known of educator Paulo Freire's works. It was first published in Portuguese in 1968 as Pedagogia do oprimido and the first English translation was published in 1970. The book examines the struggle for justice and equity within the educational system and proposes a new pedagogy.
Dedicated "to the oppressed, and to those who suffer with them and fight at their side," Freire includes a detailed Marxist class analysis in his exploration of the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. Rooted in his own experience helping Brazilian adults to read and write, the book remains popular among educators in developing countries. According to Donaldo Macedo, a former colleague of Freire and University of Massachusetts professor, the text is still revolutionary, and he cites as evidence students from totalitarian states risking punishment to read Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The book has sold over 750 000 copies worldwide and is one of the foundations of critical pedagogy.
Contents |
[edit] Summary
Translated into several languages, most editions of Pedagogy of the Oppressed contain at least one introduction/foreword, a preface, and four chapters.
The first chapter explores how oppression has been justified and how it is overcome through a mutual process between the "oppressor" and the "oppressed". Examining how the balance of power between the colonizer and the colonized remains relatively stable, Freire admits that the powerless in society can be frightened of freedom. He writes, "Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes myth. It is rather the indispensable condition for the quest for human completion." According to Freire, freedom will be the result of praxis--informed action--when a balance between theory and practice is achieved.
The second chapter examines the "banking" approach to education -- a metaphor used by Freire that suggests students are considered empty bank accounts that should remain open to deposits made by the teacher. Freire rejects the "banking" approach, claiming it results in the dehumanization of both the students and the teachers. In addition, he argues the banking approach stimulates oppressive attitudes and practices in society. Instead, Freire advocates for a more world-mediated, mutual approach to education that considers people incomplete. According to Freire, this "authentic" approach to education must allow people to be aware of their incompleteness and strive to be more fully human. This attempt to use education as a means of consciously shaping the person and the society is called conscientization, a term first coined by Freire in this book.
The third chapter is devoted to dialogics--"the essence of education as the practice of freedom"--and dialogue. Freire argues that words involve a radical interaction between reflection and action and that true words are transformational. Dialogue requires mutual respect and cooperation to not only develop understanding, but also to change the world. "Authentic" education, according to Freire, will involve dialogue between the teacher and the student, mediated by the broader world context. He warns that the limits imposed upon both the colonizer and the colonized dehumanize everyone involved, thereby removing the ability for dialogue to occur, inevitably barring the possibility of transformation.
The last chapter proposes dialogics as an instrument to free the colonized, through the use of cooperation, unity, organization and cultural synthesis (overcoming problems in society to liberate human beings). This is in contrast to antidialogics which use conquest, manipulation, cultural invasion, and the concept of divide and rule. Freire suggests that populist dialogue is a necessity to revolution; that impeding dialogue dehumanizes and supports the status quo. This is but one example of the dichotomies Freire identifies in the book. Others include the student-teacher dichotomy and the colonizer-colonized dichotomy.
More detailed chapter by chapter summaries are available through The Communication Initiative.
[edit] Reaction
Since its publication, the book has sparked both praise and criticism. For example, Stanley Aronowitz, from City University of New York, proclaims, the book "meets the single criterion of a classic: it has outlived its own time and its author's. For any teacher who links education to social change, this is required reading." Gail Kidd, from Purdue University, writes that Freire "possesses wonderful insight into people's souls. He finds every human worthy of respect, dignity, and trust. It is uplifting to read and understand his empathy for others and their plight."
Critics have attacked Freire's book on a number of fronts. Sarah Hendriks, from the University of Toronto, points out that Freire's writing "seems to contradict the very essence of his pedagogy . . . . [since he argues that language changes the world but] does not leave room for the inclusion of popular discourse within the text of his own pedagogy, thereby limiting his text to a specific, academically-oriented audience." Another critic, Diana Coben, from King's College, asserts that Pedagogy of the Oppressed is "...just too simple and indiscriminate to accommodate the multi-faceted and contradictory nature of differential power relationships in terms of gender, class or any other social category." Rich Gibson attacks Freire as a Hegelian "objective idealist," who borrowed heavily from Hegel's "Phenomenology," as "a petrified old-style socialist wherever he wasn't, and a reformer wherever he was; a devout Catholic who never broke out of his mysticism." Others have noted Freire's idyllic vision of a world without oppression while feminist reviewers have been critical of Freire's use of gender biased language. To read more criticism of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, see Reviews of Paulo Friere's Books .
[edit] References
- Rich Gibson, The Frozen Dialectics of Paulo Freire, in NeoLiberalism and Education Reform, Hampton Press, 2006.
[edit] Issues in Freirean pedagogy
- Conscientization
- Critical consciousness
- Critical pedagogy
- Popular education
- Teaching for social justice
- Adult literacy
- Adult education
- Praxis
[edit] External links
Anti-oppressive education • Banking • Conscientization • Critical consciousness • Critical pedagogy • Pedagogy of the Oppressed • Popular education • Praxis • Teaching for social justice • Youth empowerment
