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Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 30th Anniversary Edition

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As a neophyte in the rather intimidating world of theory and critical pedagogy, I am both delighted and impressed by the ability Paulo Freire had to effectively communicate in a manner that was powerful yet unpretentious. His seminal work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, is indeed a wake-up call to educators everywhere and should therefore be required reading for anyone who ever has, or ever will, set foot in the classroom. Freire's simple message is this: True education is a dialogical process in which teachers become students and students become teachers, all in the name of liberation for everyone involved.

The first chapter - while admittedly depressing - introduces ideas and terms that are necessary for the comprehension of the latter three. The basic plot of domination is thus summarized: Through violence and exploitation, an oppressor class "dehumanizes" an oppressed group that ultimately becomes incapable of recognizing its own oppressive situation. Therefore, in order to overcome this oppressive state of affairs, intervention is not only desirable but necessary. The oppressed must experience an awakening period in which they open their own eyes (rather than have their eyes opened for them) to the true status of their situation. However, Freire contends that in order to achieve true liberation, the oppressors and the oppressed must join together in communion towards a common altruistic goal: humanity.

This is the cornerstone of Freire's argument. I have to admit, as an enthusiastic rookie to critical pedagogy, I have little to disagree with or respond to after reading this epic expression of love. Nonetheless, my major critique is that the idea of liberation for all is a bit idealistic given the current state of the American education system. In a culture of high-stakes testing, it is difficult - if not impossible - to envision such a radical shift in paradigm ever coming to pass.

So why invest so much time and effort in studying and lauding Freire? I believe that to simply disregard Freire's fundamental argument because its ultimate goal is currently infeasible on a large scale in America would be tragically fallacious. His banking concept of education is a call for all educators to think critically about what they do and say (and, just as importantly, what their students do and say) in the classroom. To ignore this is to ignore our vocation.

The second half of Freire's work shares an implementation plan for liberation praxis and concludes with a discussion of the (fine) line between antidialogical and dialogical action. This is important substance, as many teachers - I include myself in this - fall into the traps Freire cautions against, even when they are acting in what they believe to be the students' best interest. Every student is a person. The idea sounds simple enough, but it gets complicated when teachers are more preoccupied with test scores and teaching standards than the people themselves. So, in the name of "leaving no child behind," the people are soon forgotten.

Who knew that a humble priest from Brazil would have such an impact on American critical teaching theory? The mission now - as Freire's secular disciples - is to spread his word. Freire's message of hope still lives on, but will die out if we allow our voices to be silenced.

This is an excellent book.

I do not have a great deal to add to many reviews that have been written on this widely read book. But I would like to say a couple of things here.

First of all, this book has often been criticised for being biassed. Indeed, Freire expresses a strong bias. But, he makes no attempt to hide this and is often quite explicitly self-conscious of his own bias. All points of view are biassed. The reader should be wary on any book that claims to be "objective" or "unbiassed" on any subject. Selection and perspective are inevitable.

Secondly, Freire did make some quite naive remarks about Lenin and Mao, and he had very romantic view of the Cuban revolution, but these do not detract from the insights and intelligence of his views of education and how it can aid human liberation from oppression.

Thirdly, this book should be read alongside his Education for Critical Consciousness.

You will see how his idea is very influential in the educational discourse. Intrigued particularly by the Chapter 2, I would say that his revlutionary notion of education will be alive and well-adapted in the contemporary educational practices.

Freire wants to critisize the idea of narrative education in which teachers just impose students with plentiful information without encouraging them to think cirtically and to search for realilty, and students just listen passively, try to memorize, and repeat teacher's words and lessons accordingly. In fact, education should be to forster students' creativity, transformation ,and knowledge so that it helps them to become fully human being. In the ideology of oppression, teacher is the oppressor, and students are the oppressed. It means it is not neccessary for students to argue, ask questions, have their own position, and the roles of teacher are to preach students and to dominate their opinions. In other words, it is called the banking concept of education used by oppresors to change the mind of the oppressed in order to easily cotrol them. Conversely, the concept of liberian education entails deeper cooperation between teachers and students. Teachers and students can learn from each other because students must be seen as people who have prior knowlege and raise their opinions influencing teachers'.

When I look at today's current educational practices through the lens of Freire's discussion about 'banking', I feel very sad. The push for increased and higher-stakes standardized testing methods encourage us to use the banking method of education (dropping "facts" into the students' brains, and calling that "education"). Reading Pedagogy of the Oppressed is an important step in illuminating how harmful these practices are to the children we want to help become active members of society.

The concept of a ruling class and an oppressed class may be controversial, but is very, very true in the current stratified society of the USA, both within the area of public education, and within other portions of society.

Freire may have written this book 30 years ago, but it is just as relevant to the USA today as it was to Brazil in the 1970s.

Is there a book more important to understanding how the educational systems facilitate the reproduction of oppresive systems? Probably not. In this classic work, openly critiques current "banking" models of education and explains how they work to reproduce oppresive systems. In true recognition of his Marxist ethos, Freire subsequently lays out a plan of action (praxis) for transforming society and realizing humankind's "historical vocation" of becoming more fully human. This is a must-read book for EVERYONE!

I'll admit, with many other reviewers here, that Pedagogy of the Oppressed can be a bit of a chore to read. It's not that it's difficult so much as that it's repetitive and dull at times. But, that said, I found myself marking passage after passage in the book, stunned about how right he so often is and saddened that despite wide familiarity with Freire in our culture, we've not really learned the lessons he offers and taken heed of his warnings.

One key moment that stuck out to me was the animal analogy he offers. Animals, Freire points out, are unable to separate themselves from their activity and surroundings, unable to reflect upon it. It is simply an extension of themselves because they lack the consciousness to conceive of it as "not-I." This is important to see because the oppressed in societies (and oppressors, for that matter), those who suffer injustice, are often similarly submerged, made by the banking model of education and ubiquitous ideologies of oppression unable to recognize the many societal and personal forces that keep them in oppression. A liberating pedagogy--to be practiced both in schools and in other social organizations--treats individuals as subjects capable of creative and critical thought. Then, together, people may begin to name the forces of oppression, become conscious of them, and become fully human in the process of creating change.

I fear that Freire is right that our social education system paralyzes too many, making us passive, uncreative, unconscious, and far too unloving. Pedagogy of the Oppressed is such an important book to help those of us in education--but also those in churches, the news media, the arts, etc.--to become more conscious ourselves and to seek out with others a greater good.

This book is a true eye opener to people of oppression. Not only does it give you perspective of the oppressed, but of the oppressor and the relationship of both. Great reading if you want to be enlightened.

Anyone who works in education, and anyone who cares about the work educators do should read this book. Paolo Friere has crafted an essential treatise on the purpose of education.

I am having to read this for my Education 2110 class. It is a very difficult book to read, especially the first chapter. Once you get past that, it is a lot easier to understand. When reading the first chapter you might want to have a dictonary handy. It was overall a very helpful and insighful read though. I took a lot away from it. Its very intresting to understand the different methods of teaching. It also made me realize what kind of teach I do and don't want to be.

As someone who does grassroots community work, I found this book to be amazingly helpful and absolutely invaluable. The book articulates so much of that which I see every day, but was unable to articulate. Although much of Freire's work involved working with illiterate adults, the principles outlined here are applicable to anyone and everyone who is or who is concerned with ending oppression. I think any educator, social worker, organizer...well, really almost anyone who is interested in ending injustice should read this.