Review_Author: Aideen Murphy
Book_Author: Paulo Freire
Book_Title: Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Reference: 1970, New York, Continuum Publishing Company
Date: 11/22/2004
Time: 11:15:58 AM
Remote Name: 128.175.34.35
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PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED The book is comprised of four chapters and the essential points raised in each chapter are summarized below. Chapter 1: The Pedagogy essentially boils down to the individual learning to develop his own growth through experiences from his everyday life. The subject builds the world through his day to day experiences. The texts that the subject produces through a Pedagogy of the Oppressed are created in the effort to name the world i.e. the subject is not conforming to an external reality but is reforming that reality to make it conform with his demands. For this Pedagogy to be successful the student cannot simply reproduce the words as they already exist, they must create their own words, words that reflect an awareness of their reality and that open the door for freedom from oppression. It means abandoning the blind conformism and recognizing ones position as a victim of oppression in order to transform that reality. Freire is quick to emphasize that liberation from oppression does not entail the oppressed assuming the position of oppressors wherein they become the antithesis of what they are fighting against. The Pedagogy is about constructing self from the inside out. It is about achieving consciousness of ones reality in order to write oneself onto the world and to question what has been accepted as the status quo as opposed to adapting a reality that is presented by the oppressors. Freire was in direct opposition to thinking such as that produced by deficit theory wherein the oppressed are somehow deemed responsible for their position, what is even more alarming is the level at which the oppressed internalize and accept this sense of blame rendering them dependent upon the oppressors and further fueling a cycle of exploitation. In order to break such a cycle the oppressed but first know self and from this knowledge develops a real vision of emancipation. Chapter 2. This is the Chapter of the book that is of most interest to me as an educator. It is a chapter I read as a student teacher and the words resonated deeply with me. Freire introduces the “Banking Concept of Education” but not before declaring that education itself is suffering from “Narration Sickness…we have all been in classrooms where we sat passively as a teacher lectured from a podium as we furiously scribbled down the words of wisdom to be memorized at a later date in preparation for the assessment of our having adequately assimilated the “truth”. It is this “culture of silence” in education that allows the regeneration of power systems within society, questioning instigates change, silence maintains the status quo. In traditional schooling we memorize dates in history, formulas in science, weather systems in Geography, Shakespeare in English etc etc etc…but we never ask why? It is education based on a “culture of silence”. We never get the opportunity to say “How is this relevant to me or to my reality?”….we accept the story of the world that is being presented to us by the teacher because within the banking concept of education the more passive we are in our acceptance of the transfer of knowledge the better a student we are. Similarly the greater the volume of knowledge a teacher can “fill” her students’ minds with the better a teacher she is. The teacher is the depositor of the commodity of knowledge. This system of education is one of control. The culture of silence objectifies the learner in order to maintain and replicate the current status quo by ensuring that minds are educated in a homogeneous fashion without the capacity for critical reflection on self and on the world. The more passivity that can be maintained in the individual the better because passivity ensures helplessness and provides the opportunity for the oppressor to act as savior, benefactor, and guardian ensuring a reliance of the oppressed on the oppressors. In order for liberation from oppression to occur the individual must be with the world not simply of the world…in other words education must cease in the production of subjects alienated from reality and engaging with the world in a mechanical and detached manner. Education then must be a process of liberation both for the oppressors and the oppressed, leading to what Freire referred to as conscientization. The development of consciousness that has the power to act upon and thus construct reality. The content of the education process must be relevant to the experience and reality of the student and the dichotomy that exists between teacher and student must be replaced with a new dialogic approach to the education process where there is no hierarchical divide between student and teacher. But this emphasis on the dialogic isn’t proposing dialogue for dialogues sake, it is about a deepening of understanding of the world and the place that one occupies in the world. But the only truly effective action is informed action, or praxis. To engage in praxis one must first begin to question reality and cease the adaptation of self to a predefined narrative of the world. Emancipation of mind only comes with questioning what is accepted as true. As an alternative to the banking concept of education Freire produces the concept of Problem- Posing education. By problematizing what has been accepted as reality the educator helps people to reflect both on themselves and on the world in which they exist thus encouraging empowerment to effect change upon that world. Problem posing education involves placing the individual himself in the dialectic process wherein the artificiality of the narrative of “the world” has no place. Chapter 3 If education is little more than a tool to transfer the values, ideals and truths of society and to perpetuate the regeneration of existent social strata then the goal of schooling is to discourage understanding of reality and of the natural desire to question our world. In chapter three Freire notes that man does not create himself in silence, but through words, actions and reflections. This being so we cannot exclude dialogue from the learning process. For Freire education is about clearly understanding our reality as it exists while empowering us to transform that reality Since no transformation of reality can occur in isolation from others and from the world it follows that reality emerges from words and develops into action. If we acknowledge the power of words we must also acknowledge the necessity and transformative power of dialogue or dialogicity. The reality constructed out of dialogue is never static and will constantly be transformed. Freire argues that the educator must immerse themselves in the reality of the learner and must adapt to the language of the community in which he is teaching. It is within this community that relevant generative topics for learning can be found. It is the antithesis of de-contextualized education that we force upon children in our education system today. Chapter 4: In this chapter Freire looks at anti-dialogicity versus dialogicity. Anti-dialogicity is used to maintain the status-quo… to rob people of their voices and thus their ability to reflect upon and transform their reality. It is a process of alienation from each other and from the world. I understand that there are deep political and indeed revolutionary ideologies being expressed in this book but I choose to read it and review it from the perspective promoting critical thinking among students in a classroom. The text is loaded with terms that can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Marxist ideology and Christian metaphors are prevalent with Freire referring to such concepts as the Easter Experience of the teacher. I think there is irony in the fact that he produces a work lecturing the necessity of engaging in a dialogue that is accessible and realistic to the community being educated yet the oppressed to whom he is referring would have difficulty in deciphering the language of his text. This was not an irony that was lost on Freire himself and indeed most of his work after Pedagogy of the Oppressed is far more accessible and is written in plain, often conversational language. Concepts such as “naming the world” can be problematic from an interpretive point of view. Also while change from within is advocated there is a sense in which one must question the level of manipulation that is advocated in the name of revolution? Overall however I would recommend that all student teachers and educators read at least chapter 2 of this book which poses an alternative to the hierarchical structures we apply in our learning environments. I think if we are really concerned with producing critical thinkers that can reflect upon their role in society and can in turn transform themselves and the society in which they are situated then elements of Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed are applicable to those ideals.
Review_Author: insurance auto
Book_Author: farm bureau
Book_Title: best deals
Reference: Automobils
Date: 3/3/2007
Time: 12:06:47 PM
Remote Name: 210.211.148.152
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