Cog Tools Reflection-10 (Pedagogy of the Oppressed)

Recap: This book was originally written in 1968 in Portuguese and translated to English in 1970.

In his book, Freire:

1. proposes a new relationship between student, teacher, and society
2. provides a rationale for a pedagogy of the oppressed & exposes historical teaching methods ("banking education")
3. identifies dichotomies such as the student-teacher dichotomy and colonizer-colonized dichotomy
4. explores how oppression has been justified & how to overcome it through a mutual process (oppressors-oppressed distinction)
5. 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".
6. freedom is the result of praxis or informed action (when a balance between theory & practice is achieved)
7. rejects the banking approach to education; claimed that it results in the dehumanization of students & teachers
8. advocated for a more world-mediated (mutual) approach to education in which people are incomplete; people must be aware of their incompleteness & strive to be more fully human

• conscientization: consciously shaping the person & society (a term first coined in this book)

This book is considered the beginning of his unparalleled exploration. In order to fully understand his lifetime contribution to education it is advice that you look at the entirety of his writing rather than only this one book. In fact, he critically revisited the main arguments of this book in his book entitled Pedagogy of Hope (written in the 1990s) and in a moment of reflection & self-regulation is quoted saying, "If I was the same that I was 40 years ago, I would be profoundly disappointed. But at the same time, if I was nothing of what I was 40 years ago, I would be profoundly sad."

Friere was heavily influenced by Frantz Fanon & Karl Marx. He rejected traditional education as "official knowledge" that intends to oppress. He also ignored the traditional standards of Western education (Dewey, Rousseau...)