Paulo Freire delivered a message about the oppressed and the main reasons their oppressors continued to mistreat them in his book, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed.” The goal of Freire’s pedagogy was to emancipate the oppressed by increasing their self-awareness and giving them the tools they needed to rise and confront their oppressors. Freire criticizes the traditional educational model because of its propensity for complacency and its support of oppression (Freire, 2005, p. 71). In the area of education, Freire put forth a paradigm that aims to incorporate social context into the learning process.
Traditional education is referred to as the banking concept of education by Freire in Chapter 2 of his book. The teacher gives the students information, allowing them to gather it passively (Freire, 2005, p. 72). The educator validates his existence by displaying himself to his learners as their inevitable opposite. Freire (2005), believes that ignorance is absolute in this context. The author seemed to refer to teachers as oppressors and students as oppressed in his teacher-student relationship. To resolve the teacher-student paradox, Freire proposed a problem-posing educational system (Freire, 2005, p. 79). Problem-posing education aims to constantly reveal reality through the pursuit of consciousness and critical intervention (Freire, 2005, p. 81). Generally, this system supposes that students are engaged learners who can challenge the teachers and take charge of the material being taught to them.
I concur with Freire’s ideas regarding an educational model that emphasizes the value of an individual expression and freedom of thought. I had a teacher in school who encouraged us to express ourselves freely. We were each given a blank essay and told to write about whatever came to mind. We might concur or disagree with our teacher in some situations. The lessons were fantastic and successful because there was a strong emphasis on communication between teachers and students.
In brief, Freire shows the world how to eliminate the class divide so everyone can exercise their right to free speech. Any progressive change and development involving both the oppressed and the oppressors must be centered on dialogue. Modern education, in my opinion, should focus less on students taking in, memorizing, and repeating what their teachers have taught them. The responsibility for the learning process should fall equally on both students and teachers.
Reference
Freire, P. (2005). Pedagogy of the oppressed. The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.