Paulo Friere has been called one of the most influential thinkers about education in the late 20th century. He is most known for his concern for the powerless as written in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Friere posited five main ideas:
1. The importance of dialogue and the fact that the dialogue was two way, contained in a respectful relationship. It meant that people worked with each other.
2. He spoke of “praxis” – action that was informed by knowledge and should be linked to values. But it wasn’t knowledge for knowledge sake; rather, it was to empower people to use the knowledge to make an impact on their world.
3. He spoke about building hope for the oppressed. As consciousness is increased, society can be transformed.
4. Friere emphasized the importance of linking education with the real world experiences of the students.
5. Friere tried to highlight and minimize the differences between teachers and learners.
Freire states that education is a subversive force. In particular education is both subversive and real when it is liberating. "Education as the exercise of domination stimulates the credulity of students, with the ideological intent (often not perceived by educators) of indoctrinating them to adapt to the world of oppression" Whereas, "Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferrals of information" Most tellingly, "Problem posing education does not and cannot serve the interests of the oppressor. No oppressive order could permit the oppressed to begin to question: Why?" Indeed, problem posing education is a form of education which provides a method of finding meaningful problems and solutions for those receiving the education; not a way to oppress those attempting to gain education. The oppressors basically do not wish for the oppressed to think for themselves; similar to how advertisers attempt to plant ideas in the consumer's subconscious mind and give him/her notions about providing for the ease of things being done for them, pre-made. The oppressors do not want the oppressed to have the education that is based on experiential learning. A pre-made education is one which will keep the oppressed oppressed and without freedom. True education is a practice of freedom and requires that the oppressed apprehend and intervene in reality .
Conscientizacao is a central concept to Freire's conclusions. The term is described as "learning to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions, and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality" Freire states that some perceive conscientizacao as a danger. Conscientizacao involves knowing and naming the reality around you and interpreting that reality with critical analysis. In a sense it is a state of becoming fully conscious.
As Erich Fromm said in Escape from Freedom:
[Man] has become free from the external bonds that would prevent him from doing and thinking as he sees fit. He would be free to act according to his own will, if he knew what he wanted, thought, and felt. But he does not know. He conforms to anonymous authorities and adopts a self which is not his. The more he does this, the more powerless he feels, …
I believe the essence of "Escape from Freedom" can be found first in the chapter, "Mechanisms of Escape": "The person who gives up his individual self and becomes an automaton, identical with millions of other automatons around him, need not feel alone and anxious any more. But the price he pays, however, is high; it is the loss of his self."
And second, under the chapter, "Freedom and Democracy":
"This loss of identity then makes it still more imperative to conform, it means that one can be sure of oneself only if one lives up to the expectations of others. If we do not live up to this picture, we not only risk disapproval and increased isolation, but we risk losing the identity of our personality, which means jeopardizing sanity."
"... We must replace manipulation of men by active and intelligent co-operation, and expand the principle of government of the people, by the people, for the people, from the formal political to the economic sphere."
As John Dewey put it:
The serious threat to our democracy,” he says, “is not the existence of foreign totalitarian states. It is the existence within our own personal attitudes and within our own institutions of conditions which have given a victory to external authority, discipline, uniformity and dependence upon The Leader in foreign countries. The battlefield is also accordingly here – within ourselves and our institutions.
If we want to fight Fascism we must understand it. Wishful thinking will not help us.
Battle On, Think Always!
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