Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed
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This paper is a discussion of one of the more radical and influential theories of education, Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and its relationship and applicability to the proposed reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the guidelines used by public schools throughout America to determine the effectiveness and purposes of elementary and secondary school education. Freire, a Brazilian educator and theorist, was driven from his native Brazil by a military coup, an act that allowed him to bring his revolutionary approach to pedagogy directly to other educational systems. Although conceived as a response to adult illiteracy within oppressive Third World regimes, Freire's unique way of looking at education in general has strongly influenced educational philosophy in many other settings. This paper considers whether his radical approach, which argues that truly effective education can only be achieved as a participatory process, without which it perpetuates the destructive roles of oppressor and oppressed, can have any relevance within the traditional American academic process. Looking at ESEA guidelines from a Freirean perspective allows the educational scholar to reconsider the effectiveness of this traditional approach and contemplate the philosophical underpinnings that inform it. Education in the United States is built on the fundamental premise that all American children should achieve a certain level of literacy, mastery of basic
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eir entrapment and by finding a way out, through education. Yet the goal is not to eventually exchange places with the oppressors; instead, it is to transform the world in which both exist and end both states, thus allowing everyone involved to become more human and participative in the process of living. The process is difficult, but, Freire (1993) asserts:
The conflict lies in the choice between being wholly themselves or being divided; between ejecting the oppressor within or not ejecting them; between human solidarity or alienation; between following prescriptions or having choices; between being spectators or actors; between acting or having the illusion of acting through the actions of the oppressors; between speaking out or being silent, castrated in their power to create and re-create, in their power to transform the world (p. 30).
In this situation, the pedagogy of the oppressed lies in the ability of the oppressed to become aware of their situation and reclaim their innate, human ability to transcend oppression. This awareness cannot (and will not) be given to them by their oppressors. It must come from within.
Freire's ideas first began to gain interest for educators outside the Third World with his assertion that
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Approximate Word count = 3728
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)
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