Freire's Masterpiece: Pedagogy of the Oppressed
By Jessa T. Icot
In 1968, Paulo Freire published a book entitled "Pedagogy of Oppressed." It's considered
as one of the remarkable books that tackle about oppression, a sensitive matter even today.
Primarily, this book was written to enlighten the minds of the oppressed and the oppressors
themselves. Paulo Freire introduced the idea that only the oppressed can liberate the oppressor
itself as Freire said "… it is only the oppressed who, by freeing themselves, can free their
oppressors. "The oppressed people must do it first. They must not hope only to liberate
themselves but to put themselves in action as it is through their action and quest they could have
an in-depth understanding of the world.
On the other hand, the concept of perception was being emphasized by Freire. The
perception was the primary delinquent of why we have been oppressed and why we have
oppressors. One's perception is influenced by one's environment. How you perceive things is the
product of how the environment conditioned your mind. In the case of oppressed people, they
are conditioned that the oppressors are dominant in society. They've seen, hear or even feel how
powerful oppressors are and how they run in society. For that, instead of liberating themselves
from being oppressed, they want to be one of the oppressors. The very same for the oppressors.
They are conditioned that with power, they can do whatever they want even to the point of
abusing the people. For that reason, oppression exists because of the negative perception
instilled in one's mind by both the oppressed and oppressor. However, it is through perception
too that we can eradicate oppression. For Freire, to have an in-depth understanding, one must
change his/her negative perception to a positive one, and to change that perception, one must
have a good and quality education.
Not all people are privileged to be educated. Mostly, these people are poverty-stricken.
Even Freire himself is not an exception. Paulo Freire was born in 1921. In the 1930's At a very
young age, he had some difficulties in his schooling due to the economic and political instability
of Brazil The region where he was born, the Northeast of Brazil, was the poorest region. It's the
home of a vast number of illiterate landless laborers and petty peasants. Experiencing those
hardships in life, Freire developed his desire to help the poor. And later on, commits himself to
improving the conditions of marginalized people. He then joined organizations that aims to
educate the poor masses in the country and pressed for land reform and organized the Cultural
Extension Service of the University of Recife, a program of adult education. In addition, a popular
movement was born in the 1950s. This movement was called Movimento de Cultura Popular or
the mass education movement. Its primary aim was to make people aware of their democratic
rights such as taking part in the election and voting wisely.
In 1963, Freire became head of Brazil's National Commission of Popular Culture under the
government of João Goulart, a liberal and populist. This commission aims to educate the people.
The intention was good and it can help the peasants in Brazil. However, the upper and middle
classes can't fathom it. They think that education should be only for them not for those peasants.
For that reason, a right-wing dictatorship came to rise to throw Freire in prison for 70 days. This
right-wing dictatorship viewed mass literacy and political participation as a threat to their society.
After he was released from prison, Freire went into exile for years. During his exile, he wrote the
book " Pedagogy of Oppressed" which made him a notable philosopher of education not only in
Brazil but to the whole world.
Although it made him known, many people are against his book from the time it was
published till today. Mainly because those people fear that this book will poison the mind of
people, especially the young ones. Just like, In present-day Brazil, President Bolsanaro and his
supporters slandered Freire being Brazil's patron of education. They believed that Freire was a
lunatic revolutionary that go against the traditional hierarchies.
Even though many people are against it, it adds only to the popularity of the book. That's
why Pedagogy of the oppressed is one of the books that will never be obsolete and will always
be relevant.
Freire was a genius when he incorporates education with the concept of oppression. Who
would think that the banking approach at those times could be an example of oppression in the
context of school? However, I strongly disagree with the idea that the banking approach could
make the students feel oppressed just because teachers are being seen as the sole dispenser of
knowledge in this approach. It was never unjust if the teacher only will be the primary giver of
knowledge. I, myself, have experienced this approach and I never felt oppressed about it There's
a reason why they are called teachers and why they are called students. They have their own
roles that need to be fulfilled. Moreover, since Freire dislikes the idea of a banking approach as
it is against his philosophy, he made a new approach that has been widely used around the globe
to this day, problem-posing education. This approach emphasizes that a democratic relationship
between the teacher and students in the classroom setting is necessary to attain an in-depth
understanding of the world.
In Freire's critical pedagogy, Dialogue between two people could solve a "dehumanize"
person. This idea was very clever as it is the most natural way a person does in understand some
misconceptions against one another. In that sense, you can clearly say that Freire indeed added
some personal touch in creating this approach. Making this book more appealing and even more
real.
Henceforth, the relevancy of this book will never go down the scale. Its influence still
remains in the education sector and even in politics. Although, oppression still exists today, at
the very least there are still many people who understand who was enlightened of the true
essence of liberation.
References:
Yi-Huang Shih. (2018). Rethinking Paulo Freire’s Dialogic Pedagogy and Its Implications for
Teachers’ Teaching. Journal of Education and Learning; Vol. 7, No. 4.
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1179672.pdf
https://researchcage.com/2021/02/11/summary-of-paulo-freire-pedagogy-of-the-oppressed/
https://www.fairobserver.com/region/latin_america/andrew-woods-paulo-freire-pedagogyoppressed-brazil-far-right-education-news-15112/
https://www.dvv-international.de/en/adult-education-and-development/editions/aed692007/10th-anniversary-of-paulo-freirersquos-death/paulo-freirersquos-literacy-teachingmethodology
https://www.litcharts.com/lit/pedagogy-of-the-oppressed/preface
https://iep.utm.edu/freire/
https://daily.jstor.org/paulo-freires-pedagogy-of-the-oppressed-at-fifty/