Pedogagy of the Oppressed

A perhaps not-so-radical critique of the education system.

Freire critiques the ‘banking model’ of education: a system where children are empty vessels to be filled with knowledge. Knowledge that is in itself also empty, devoid of true value.

To us, this looks like memorising and regurgitating useless numbers, dates and information - a struggle I am sure we have all endured at least once. It may also look like a long and seemingly endless lesson of copying down slide after slide in silence.

Freire empathises with us there too. Putting it more eloquently, he says: 

• “the teacher teaches and the students are taught

•  the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing

• the teacher thinks and the students are thought about

• the teacher talks and the students listen—meekly

• the teacher disciplines and the students are disciplined

• the teacher chooses and enforces his choice, and the students comply

• the teacher acts and the students have the illusion of acting through the action of the teacher

• the teacher chooses the program content, and the students (who were not consulted) adapt to it”

Sound familiar?

The more we are filled with empty narration, the more hollow we become. Critical consciousness - conscientização as Freire puts it in Portuguese - is never achieved.

In essence, thinking is domesticated or eradicated completely, so that it no longer becomes ‘critical’ thinking. It is no longer a process, an action, or a questioning, it is simply a retrieval of information. Here, I believe that debate and discussion can play a critical role in teaching us to engage with knowledge but also teaching us to 'agree disagreeably'.

But it is not a retrieval of any information; the information chosen that is considered ‘correct’, so that it aligns with the systems of authority. For any students here that do TOK (bare with me), think about the relationship between power and knowledge.

However, Freire extends his analysis a bit further.

He analyses the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed.

He frames oppression, whatever form it may take, as a process of dehumanization.

One that stops one reaching their full potential and discovering one’s humanity and identity. Oppression limits expression, restricts autonomy and prohibits liberation. However, in his opinion, it is not just the oppressed that is dehumanized, it is also the oppressor. By oppressing others, they themselves lose their own humanity.

Meanwhile, the oppressed strive to become the oppressors by falling prey to the false illusion that it will give them back their humanity when actually, they are striving to be free.

Sounds like an evil game to play but one that we have seen play out in history many times before.

“The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom.”

“No one can be authentically human while he prevents others from being so.”

What does humanity mean to you? What does freedom mean, and are we ever truly free?

For Freire, liberation is composed of two stages. The first being reflection, realising how the systems of oppression operate, and the second being concrete action to dismantle them. He proposes an alternative: the ‘problem-posing model’ of education. Humanity, for Freire, is the starting point and from there, he reimagines education. The roles of student and teacher being eradicated, both can now teach and be taught and engage in truly open dialogue. 

A question for you now: what do you think of the education system as it is and would you like to experience Freire's model of education?