Unpacking the layers of

Adult-Popular Education
A reflective essay on the journey of unlearning tradition
educational approaches.

Author

Priyanka Pal
While doing our recce for the documentary film, ‘We make films’, (We Make Film, 2017) we
came across many disabled creators and groups who have been and are still creating and
innovating new methods and processes of inclusion for themselves and for their fellows with
disabilities in order to adapt in future for filmmaking if needed. It was truly incredible to see this
vast knowledge of technical know-how along with a few shortcuts of the filmmaking processes
creators with disabilities initiated in making their own films. This provided more agency to the
disabled artist to come forward and be part of the creative journey, bringing in their own ideas,
innovations and in setting their own goals. The power they bring as a community is beyond
anything I have personally experienced. This power puts the spotlight on transforming the
creative process towards making it accessible and inclusive for all which also reminds me of one
of the famous quotes by Paulo Freire: Transformation is only valid if it is carried out with the
people, not for them (Freire, 1997)

Being a revolutionary educator, Paulo Freire, left a big mark in the world of education. He was a
Brazilian educator, philosopher, and a great advocate for social justice. In the world of education,
he is known for a revolutionary idea which is called critical pedagogy. His ideas had a big impact
on educational theories and practices and also inspired many educators and teachers worldwide
to discard the traditional approach to education which he has articulated in his famous book
called Pedagogy of the Oppressed. (Pedagogy, n.d.) (Fabio C. Campos, 2022) (Bentley, 1999)

If one has to summarize the educational philosophy of Freire, then we need to look at the
banking model of education which was often criticized by him. (Pedagogy, n.d.) According to
him, the banking model of education was similar to the banking system currently. As one
deposits money in an empty bank account, providing its value only when the deposit is made and
reflected in the account. Similarly, in the banking model of education, a teacher, who is
considered as a wise and knowledgeable human being in an authoritative position, deposits the
knowledge of the books into the empty minds of the students who are considered as having no
value of their own and the one who doesn’t have any knowledge. This approach of educating a
student doesn’t promote critical thinking skills among the individual but mere memorization
skills which she/he/they can benefit by getting good grades. This approach also doesn’t promote
inclusive education for persons with disabilities.
Whereas, Freire’s education philosophy focuses on developing the dialogical approach which
encourages free-flowing conversation among the student and the facilitator. This kind of
democratic classroom is believed to help develop confidence among students as well as
encourage them to ask questions and build their own critical and analytical skills. This also
leaves some space for educators to develop inclusive education methodologies that can be
implemented as per the needs of the community. (Thompson, 2021) “Critical pedagogy’s
concern with issues of oppression and marginalization on the basis of socioeconomic
background, for instance, has much to offer in reconceptualizing disability as a multifaceted
form of social oppression that transcends arbitrations of innate ability” (Thompson, 2021)

Since the above-mentioned approach is also recognized as a people’s education and therefore, is
known as a popular education approach. This approach encourages a horizontal framework in
which both student and facilitator are willing to learn from each other and also understand their
limitations with mutual respect among both. There is no power structure which kind of highlights
one of Paulo Freire’s principles that no education is neutral. Both facilitator and student
acknowledge their diverse experiences and expertise with their own, unique perspective. And
they both can benefit from it. (Timmel, 2022)

Apart from this, Paula Freire’s other principles are adopted by popular education, especially in
training for transformation courses wherein one of the important ones is that the aim of education
is radical transformation which challenges the oppressive structures within education and at the
same time promotes a more democratic approach of education wherein dialogues are carried out
questioning societal issues leading to generative themes. And through problem posing
approaches these themes are then shared with students who reflect upon the root causes and
impacts of the issues in the wider society while also contemplating the actionable idea. (Timmel,
2022)

During this week of learning about 'Adult Popular Education', it was wonderful to experience the
unpacking of the said approach with a strong and bold code demonstrated through a dramatical
skit on traditional education systems. With that, we started to unpack together the root causes
and impacts of such an education system in the world. Through this we were also introduced to
the alternative approach to education that TfT has adopted - Adult Popular Education and its
significance. The key highlight for me during the learning was to design the session with my
LTTs on any specific theme we learned from our outdoor-community-listening survey at Spar.
For me, I loved the part where we took up the role of co-facilitators and designed the session
using a design template, which was very helpful. To save our time, I suggested we club the
energizer and code together as one activity, and loved the response. The look of shock and
excitement on the faces of all participants was very clear and more than that, the joy of hearing
the code from them made me super excited. To the point that participants could have experienced
a personal dance performance by me. And now that I am reflecting on it, I realize the
significance of asking the right question, because that was the trick that helped us in getting our
code recognized by participants. But when it comes to getting more detailed responses from
participants, having clear and simple questions is important, with proper framing structure which
can lead the participants to think in a certain direction. For example: if we need responses from
the participants attending the session on domestic violence to reflect an economic perspective we
can frame the question like ‘What are the economic challenges survivors of domestic violence
face?’.

Critical Reflection
Since Freire originally wrote about the critical pedagogy model, many educators have also
written about it extensively and made applications to their own areas of study across different
levels of students (Uddin, 2019) (Wong, 2022), including filmmaking education (Walker, 2016)
and in disability studies (Liasidou, n.d.); however, none to date have examined the intersection of
critical pedagogy, disability, and film making education especially in Indian context. So here
there is scope to work on and dive deeper. Given that, very few filmmaking educators focus on
an inclusive filmmaking approach and/or work with students with disabilities, examining this
intersection is important to ensure that we are creating inclusive and accessible filmmaking
processes that serve all students. (Sharma, 2021) Also, there is a higher need for the inclusive
approach of filmmaking education to cater to the mainstream industry as that is where real
inclusion needs to take place.
References
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Fabio C. Campos, G. L. A., 2022. Participatory Methods. [Online]

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Freire, P., 1997. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Revised ed. s.l.:Continuum International Publishing Group
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Liasidou, A., n.d. Inclusive education and critical pedagogy at the intersections of disability, race, gender
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Uddin, M. S., 2019. Critical Pedagogy and its Implication in the Classroom. Underrepresented and
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