The document discusses the concept of conscientisation, which was popularised by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. Conscientisation refers to raising critical awareness of social and political conditions and inequalities in order to challenge them. It involves perceiving contradictions in reality, taking action against oppression, and transforming reality through dialogue and praxis. Freire saw conscientisation as an educational process that empowers people to believe they can change their world.
The document discusses the concept of conscientisation, which was popularised by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. Conscientisation refers to raising critical awareness of social and political conditions and inequalities in order to challenge them. It involves perceiving contradictions in reality, taking action against oppression, and transforming reality through dialogue and praxis. Freire saw conscientisation as an educational process that empowers people to believe they can change their world.
The document discusses the concept of conscientisation, which was popularised by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. Conscientisation refers to raising critical awareness of social and political conditions and inequalities in order to challenge them. It involves perceiving contradictions in reality, taking action against oppression, and transforming reality through dialogue and praxis. Freire saw conscientisation as an educational process that empowers people to believe they can change their world.
2019MSW29 The English term “conscientisation” is a translation of the Portuguese term ‘conscientização ’ .
The term is also translated as “consciousness
raising” and “critical consciousness”.
The term was popularised by Brazilian
educator, activist and theorist Paulo Freire. The concept of conscientisation is briefly defined in ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ (Freire, 1972a) as “learning to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions, and to take actions against the oppressive elements of reality” The theory of Paulo Freire integrated educational practice with liberation from oppressive conditions.
Freire’s work emphasized dialogue, praxis, the
grounding of education in lived experiences, and heightening people’s consciousness to enhance the belief that they have the power to transform reality, specifically with respect to addressing oppression.
According to him, only individuals who are
socially conscious are only able to transform the world by their action Conscientisation is the action or process of making others aware of political and social conditions, especially as a precursor to challenge inequalities of treatment or opportunity.
It is the process of developing people’s
critical awareness of their situation in relation to the bigger social realities and their own capacity to transform realities.
It is the education for critical consciousness.
The issues must have importance to the people
All education and development projects
should start by identifying the issues that the local people speak with commitment, hope, fear, anxiety or anger.
It is important to ensure people’s
participation. Problem solving approach
The whole process is viewed as a common
search for solution to problems with the people as partner or active participant in all phases of problem solving.
Problem solving approach is in the contrast to
the banking approach of education where people are seen as empty vessels needing to be filled with knowledge. Dialogue
Education is a mutual learning process.
Community organizers serve as facilitators
whose role is to set up a situation in which genuine dialogue can take place, where each shares one’s experiences, listens and learns from others. In a community organisation, a social worker provides a situation in which people critically reflect on what they are doing.
Social worker identify any new information and
training that people need and plan their action.
By setting a regular cycle of action-reflection-
action in which people are constantly measuring their success or analysing critically the cause of mistakes and failures, they can become more capable of effectively transforming their daily life. Conscientisation is a dynamic process in which education and development are totally interwoven.
The main goal of conscientising education is to
involve the whole community in actively transforming the quality of each person’s life, the environment of the community and the whole society.
Each person has a contribution to make in
transforming the society and process of conscientisation helps each person become more capable and committed to the transformation of society and the whole nation. https://www.ivaw.org/sites/default/files/documen ts/Key%20Principles%20of%20Freire.pdf Paulo Freire, ‘Cultural action for Freedom’ , Boston: Harvard Educational Review, 2000