Freire, p 1968 (2017). Pedagogy of the Oppressed ( Penguin Classics) .

London:
Penguin Books. 160.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed was originally published in 1968 and authored by Pablo
Freire who was a Brazilian nationalist, and educational theorist. Freire had an
extensive background in education and held posts as a teacher, a Director, an
advisor and as the Secretary of Education in Brazil. Freire spent time as a visiting
professor at Harvard University and won many awards and honours which shows
him to be in authority and an authority in education which offers a great level of
credibility to him and his work. Pedagogy of the Oppressed has gone on to be one of
the most notable texts in education, it’s had multiple reprints by well-established
publishers and has been translated into English from Portuguese and sold over
750,000 copies worldwide, which demonstrates his reach was far and wide, offering
a great level of gravitas to his work.

Freire’s theory was born from his notion of there being two types of people in
society, those that are oppressors and those that are oppressed, which he sees as a
dehumanising way of life. Freire’s theory of critical pedagogy aims to raise critical
consciousness through thinking, which he believes enables liberation and frees the
oppressed from a life of capital mass production and mindless service jobs to create
a more humanised way of life. Freire believes that this liberation starts in education
through the teacher-student relationship and therefore he criticises traditional
pedagogy which he refers to as ‘banking education’ as he feels it assumes learners
have no knowledge and that they are ‘containers’ to be ‘filled’ through a process of
‘depositation’ which removes the ability to think thus sustaining an oppressive state.
‘The more completely they accept the passive role imposed on them, the more they
tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality
deposited in them’.(p22). 

What Freire suggests as an alternative to traditional pedagogy is his theory of critical

pedagogy which focuses on raising conscious awareness through thinking, a
methodology he calls ‘problem-posing’. Problem-posing education allows for
collaboration, so ‘The students -no longer docile listeners - are now critical co-
investigators in dialogue with the teacher’(p27) meaning everyone is on the same
level. Problem-posing education encourages talking, exploring and discussing ideas
together in the classroom through the use of didactic material to enable everyone to
enter into a dialogue where knowledge is not fixed. This dialogical approach allows
for different viewpoints which can lead to new understandings and new knowledge
which creates a better commitment between the teacher and learner, leading to
improved thinking skills and critical thinking which ‘enables people to overcome their
false perception of reality. The world — no longer something to be described with
deceptive words — becomes the object of that transforming action by men and
women which results in their humanization’ (p30). 

What Freire is proposing is radical as he is wanting to turn traditional education on

its head, and he acknowledges this radical approach in his preface as he states ‘to
accept you must be willing to accept or embrace change’ which suggests his
intended audience was activists for social, political and economic change as well as
educators. There are several strengths in Freire’s theory, one is that it gets you to
think about the true purpose of education and how/why we teach. It offers ways in
which education can be improved through the use of didactic material, creativity,
innovation, and dialogue to aid higher-order thinking skills which can lead to
exploration and the development of life skills to help bring about social change.
Critical pedagogy also offers teachers a way to look at continuously reviewing their
practice to ensure that all learners are learning and in the long run it offers a way to
enable people to liberate themselves. 

As with any theory, there are limitations that can make you question feasibility. The
limitations to this theory are that it is deeply rooted in oppression and created at a
time when oppression was on the rise, making it very apt for the era in which it was
produced, but this leads you to question how feasible this is in today’s society. It
focusses solely on the experiences and ideologies of one man in Brazil who sees
formal teaching and the education system related to it as disadvantageous as it
blocks human growth. Freire’s work offers no solid evidence which makes you
question, who were the oppressed and how were they determined? Would the
oppressed people he refers to offer a fair representation of the oppressed? there is
no mention of age, gender, race or class. The lack of evidence causes you to
question, does the banking model actually ‘anesthetiz and inhibit creative
power”(p27) and does the problem-posing model offer ‘a constant unveiling of
reality’(p27)? The lack of solid evidence makes it impossible to say if critical
pedagogy would have had an impact on liberation and brought about social change.

My response to Freire’s theory is that critical pedagogy is not a method to be

implemented as the main pedagogy in education due to the lack of substantial
supporting evidence around the impact it can have positively or negatively on society
and that of the learner. The fact that critical pedagogy assumes that knowledge is
not fixed deters from the National Curriculum in the UK. This curriculum sets out
what subjects children should be taught and to what standard and was designed
‘to ensure that every child, irrespective of social background, culture, race, gender,
differences in ability and disabilities’ receives the same education, irrespective of
where they come from’ (studentsupport.co.uk) and supports the UK's purpose of
education that is “Education is the engine of our economy, it is the foundation of our
culture, and it’s an essential preparation for adult life”(gov.co.uk). To implement
critical pedagogy would mean to change all policies, procedures and teaching
practices to a style that is driven by the need and desire to be free and liberated.
Some elements can be taken from critical pedagogy and implemented into teaching
practice to support a better environment that can be student centred with a
progressive approach, but I feel there still needs to be a path to follow to ensure
fairness and equality for all therefore I question if critical pedagogy can offer this.
Traditional pedagogy I see as a more neutral approach to education whereas critical
pedagogy is a more political approach to education.
Bibliography

Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed Available:

https://blackworldorderorg.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/pedagogy-of-the-
oppressed.pdf. Last accessed 14/12/2019.

The English National Curriculum. Available: http://www.student-

support.co.uk/parents-carers/what-is-the-national-curriculum/. Last accessed
14/12/2019.

The Rt Hon Nick Gibb. (2015). Schools Minister Nick Gibb addresses the Education
Reform Summit. Available: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-purpose-
of-education. Last accessed 14/12/2019.