Lashallah's Final Paper - Paulo Freire

Lashallah Osborne
Adult Language and Literacy – Professor Barbara Gleason
May 11, 2010


Final Paper – Paulo Freire

Through his work, Paulo Freire became legendary for developing an extraordinary approach to education that focuses on helping adults liberate themselves from oppression of others. His own childhood impoverished life molded his sociopolitical and educational beliefs. Freire was born during the early 1920’s to a middle class family in Brazil right before the great depression. He and his family were familiar with hunger and poverty due to the great depression in 1929. They continued to experience hardship after his family moved to the poverty stricken city of Jaboatao dos Guararapes and when his father died in 1933. His learning in school suffered a great deal due to these conditions. Freire’s social life back then involved spending lots of time playing sports with kids whose families’ were in worst financial circumstances than his family was. Nevertheless, he learned a lot from them. These experiences influenced his compassion for the poor and birthed a highly influential theorist of critical pedagogy.
In 1943, Freire attended Law School at the University of Recife. He also studied philosophy, phenomenology and the psychology of language. Although he was a law student and was admitted to the legal bar, Freire never actually practiced law. Instead, he worked as a language teacher, teaching Portuguese in public schools. In 1944, he married Elza Maia Costa de Olivia. The two had five children and lived the rest of their lives together as educators.
It was during 1946 when Freire became Director of the Department of Education and Culture of the Social Service in the State of Pernambuco, Brazil. He worked mostly with adult people who were considered illiterate and poor. Consequently, Freire began to “embrace a non-orthodox form of what could be considered liberation theology.” His approach of teaching literacy to adults is one that initiates self worth in adult learners and encourages them to engage in learning.
Freire accomplished many achievements in life before his death in 1997. He was appointed Director of the Department of Cultural Extension at Recife University. There he had the opportunity to significantly apply his theories, when he taught 300 sugarcane workers how to read and write in only 45 days. Because of this, “the Brazilian government approved the creation of thousands of cultural circles across the country.” He also published several books in various languages and was offered a “visiting professorship” at Harvard University. Of all of the accomplishments Freire has made, the most noteworthy has to be the humanistic and libertarian pedagogical methods he has coined to empower people by shedding light on inequity and expanding consciousness.
Freire considers education to be vital in liberating oppressed people and challenging an unjust society. In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, he enlightens us with details of the relationship between the “oppressor” and the “oppressed” in terms of the student-teacher relationship. He further explains that liberation of the oppressed “the student” can only be attained through the understanding of several themes: Understanding the “banking concept” and “problem-posing” methods of education and believing that liberation can only be achieved through the practice of critical thinking with the use of communication and dialogue.
The first type of control that is presented is the “banking concept” of education in which the oppressor tries “changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation which oppressed them”. They achieve this by practicing an authoritative method of teaching that acknowledges only the knowledge of the teacher and the incompetence of the students. As the oppressor, a teacher tries to control the way students learn, therefore indirectly suggesting a sense of passivity and marginality in the student’s character. Freire argues that, “The banking model tries to control thinking and action and inhibits our creative powers. It tries to maintain the submersion of consciousness. In it we are merely spectators, not re-creators (62).” It relies on the student’s ability to memorize what they learn rather than the students’ ability to demonstrate an act of cognition.
Currently, in many urban area educational institutions, there is excessive use of lecturing and memorization methods being practiced. For example, 1865 marks the end of slavery in the United States, but there is no emphasis taught on how that affected our lives or how it continues to affect the daily relationships we establish. Students simply memorize the date. Freire describes this situation as one in which the students are seen as containers into which knowledge can be deposited. The teacher is the depositor and the knowledge is that of which is deposited on a daily basis. This “banking concept” of education attempts to transform the minds of individuals so that they will adapt better to actual situations and be dominated by oppressors with more easily. The more passive people are, the more they will adapt, the more their creativity will diminish and the more their ignorance will increase.
On the other hand, the problem-posing method of education relies on an underlying trust between partners, the teacher and the student. Learners bring to adult education programs a wealth of knowledge from their personal experiences, and the problem-posing method builds on these shared experiences. By introducing specific questions, the teacher encourages the students to make their own conclusions about the values and pressures of society. Freire states, “As they attain this knowledge of reality through common reflection and action, they discover themselves… In this way, the presence of the oppressed in the struggle for their liberation will be what it should be: not pseudo-participation, but committed involvement (68).”
Freire’s work updated the concept and practices of education. His theories have laid the foundation for what is now called “critical pedagogy.” In addition to the two key concepts described above (the banking concept and the problem posing method), listed below are several summarized key concepts from Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed:

1. Culture of Silence – Every person, however ignorant or submerged in the “culture of silence,” can look critically at his or her world through a process of dialogue with others, and can gradually come to perceive his personal and social reality, think about it, and take action in regard to it (Back cover).
2. Speak a True Word – Those who have been denied their primordial right to speak their true word must first reclaim this right and prevent the continuation of this dehumanizing aggression (77).
3. Generative Themes – I consider the fundamental theme of our epoch to be that of domination – which implies its opposite, the frame of liberation, as an objective to be achieved (93).
4. From Object to Subject – Through the process just described, the view of an illiterate or other oppressed person is so transformed that he or she is no longer to be a mere object responding as surrounding social forces direct (Back cover).
5. Dialogue – To substitute monologue, slogans, and communiqués for dialogue is to attempt to liberate the oppressed with the instruments of domestication. This is the “populist pitfall” transforming them into masses which can be manipulated. People can only be liberated with their reflective participation in the act of libration (52).
6. Students and Teachers – Through dialogue a new term emerges, teacher-student with students-teachers. The students, while being taught, also teach. They become jointly responsible for a process in which they all grow. Here, arguments based on authority are no longer valid and authority must be on the side of freedom, not against it… no one teaches another, nor is anyone self taught. We teach each other, mediated by the world (67).
7. Education’s Either/Or – Education either conditions the younger generation into acceptance of society’s status quo or becomes “the practice of freedom” through which people deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to transform their worlds (15).
8. Dehumanization – Afflicts both those whose humanity has been stolen and those who have stolen it, distorts the process of becoming more fully human (28).
9. Dependence - The peasant begins to get courage to overcome his dependence when he realizes that he is dependent. Until then, he goes along with the boss and says, “What can I do? I’m only a peasant.” (47).
10. Change in The Oppressed and Oppressors – Although oppression dehumanizes both parties and stifles their humanity, the oppressed has to lead the struggle for a fuller humanity for both. The oppressor, who is himself dehumanized because he dehumanizes others, tries to hang onto his power and dehumanizing practices (32). When the oppressed seek to regain and deepen their humanity, they must not in turn oppress the oppressors, but rather help to restore the humanity of both (28). The contradiction between the two classes is resolved by the appearance of a new kind of human being, one in the process of liberation. It’s not possible to eliminate oppression just by a shift of roles in which the oppressor becomes the oppressed and vice-versa (42). In such change we can’t say that one person liberates himself, or another, but that people in communion liberate each other (128).

The key concepts listed above are just a few that summarizes Freire’s hypothesis that discourse between the oppressed and the oppressor will eliminate power structures and form learning communities where everyone benefits. His theories are ones of value, knowledge and human nature and are embedded in the idea that education should raise the awareness of the students so that they become critical thinkers (subjects, rather than objects, of the world). This is done by teaching students to think democratically and to continually question and make meaning from everything they learn. Freire believes, “There are no themes or values of which one cannot speak, no areas in which one must be silent. We can talk about everything, and we can give testimony about everything (58).”
Paulo Freire was also concerned with praxis, which is defined as “reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it (78).” Dialogue then is not just about deepening understanding, but is also part of making a difference in the world. Dialogue in itself is a collaborative activity involving respect and opportunity. The process is important and can be seen as enhancing community and changing society to lead us to act in ways that make for justice and human growth. Freire's entire educational theory is based on his desire to provide greater opportunity for the poor and oppressed people of the world.
Disagreement is normal and something to expect, according to Freire. If learning is to be consensual then disagreement can instigate reflection and become a source for growth. The problem that Freire addresses, is in regard to when opinions and disagreements are suppressed in the name of control and authority. He states that, “There may not be life or human existence without struggle and conflict. Conflict shares in our conscience. Denying conflict, we ignore even the most mundane aspects of our vital and social experience. Trying to escape conflict, we preserve the status quo (45).” This will not be an easy concept to embrace by oppressors or the oppressed because traditionally restrictions of the oppressed peoples thought patterns were the norm. However, the situation can be transformed. “For the oppressed to be able to wage the struggle for their liberation, they need to perceive the reality of oppression not as a closed world from which there is no exit, but as a limiting situation which they can transform (34).”
The oppressor’s attitude plays an important role in the liberation process, but only the oppressed can liberate themselves. When the oppressor can see the oppressed as individuals with unique learning styles and abilities and not categorize them as abstract objects, that is a step toward liberation. However, independence is not a gift but an act of courage and confidence. “While no one liberates himself by his own efforts alone, neither is he liberated by others. The oppressed must be their own example in the struggle for their redemption (54).” The pedagogy that Freire proposes suggests that people acquire a love of life by being educated and by being an influence on the world and not just of the world. This can only be achieved through liberation and educational equality.
Overall, Paulo Freire’s theories and concepts encourage individuals to form themselves rather than be formed. He recommends that people reflect upon and analyze the world in which they live in as part of an effort to reform it. He realizes that the practices he suggests can encounter problems from opposing individuals and/or systems that block educational achievement and cause resistance to natural learning. These situations are the product of a stagnant relationship between the oppressors and the oppressed. Obviously, in order for a change to occur, the mindset of both the oppressed and the oppressors must first change. This will require open-mindedness and respect on the part of the educator. It must also involve clear goals, willingness to learn and accountability of one's educational experience from the student. Freire is not proposing a revolutionary event. Rather, he is speaking of the awakening necessary to free oneself from the oppression that one encounters.




Works Cited
Freire, Paulo http://nlu.nl.edu/ace/Homage.html, (6/10/01)
Freire, Paulo http://www.sonoma.edu/users/d/daniels/freire_summary.html, (2/21/08)
Freire, Paulo, “Letters to Christina: Reflections of My Life and Work.” London: Routledge, 1996. 3-23 pgs. Print.
Freire, Paulo, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (30th Anniversary Edition). New York: Continuum, 2000. 9-170 pgs. Print.