Crique==pedagogy Of The Oppressed.docx

Pedagogy of the Oppressed Critique Paper Saguibal, Geline B. BSED-1D March 22,2019

Freire reveal on his book about the “humankind’s central problem”: the problem of “humanization” -the natural human drive to encourage ourselves as human beings and “dehumanization”, which is a product of historical oppression. Both humanization and dehumanization are possible for all people, people naturally try to become more humanized, a process that is constantly undermined by “injustice, exploitation, and violence.” Dehumanization is not our destiny/ purpose as people, but rather the product of a biased social order. Because of this, the most important task of oppressed people is to release themselves (and their oppressors) from an unfair system. When oppressors appear to help oppressed people, Freire argues that they often port a “false generosity” that relies on oppression to work. To truly help oppressed people, one must join the struggle to destroy oppression entirely. For Freire, this becomes the role of a “pedagogy of the oppressed”: to help the oppressed critically examine the nature of oppression, and take action to change their conditions. He also focuses on its “narrative” aspects: the teacher is a “narrating Subject” with students who are inactive. The teacher’s narration—or the facts that he/she is teaching—is not connected from the students’ life experiences, and students memorize these facts without understanding their full meaning or context. Freire calls this the “banking” model of education, one in which teachers “deposit” knowledge into the minds of their students. He finds this model problematic because it stifles creativity, and does not encourage students to ask new questions through praxis (the combination of reflection and action). When reflection is not paired with action, it becomes “verbalism”, and the word loses its power. And when action is not paired with reflection, it becomes “activism”, and people risk taking action without reflecting on what those actions fully mean. To Freire, human existence ultimately boils down to the process of naming and transforming the world around us, and everyone should be able to start this process. Freire defines dialogue in these terms and he argues that dialogue is necessary for human beings to find freedom and meaning in their lives. He also discusses about his theory of cultural action, or how people create changes in their culture and society. He starts by repeating the need for praxis and argues that praxis requires theory (a critical framework) in order to be complete. Revolutionary leaders and oppressed people should both use praxis while experiencing for liberation so that the leaders are not merely imposing their will to the oppressed. Otherwise, the struggle will be deep—Freire says that a “revolution for the people” is equivalent to “a revolution without the people.” A revolution that sees oppressed people as ignorant, or objectifies them, buys into the myths oppressors use to keep their power. To Freire, the key to an effective revolution is dialogue: both oppressors and revolutionaries have methods of changing society, but the oppressors’ methods are inherently “anti-dialogical.” Just as “problem-posing” education relies on dialogue, an effective revolution must be educational in nature.

The pedagogy of Freire is a good book for it opens up the eyes of the oppressed people to get out their selves from the oppressor in the aspect of political, educational and philosophical aspect of their life. They will learn to fight for their freedom and own will as a person and to find their being human having own dignity and rights for any race or gender. It will help to light their way from the darkest part of their life being manipulated by other people for them to humanized or being value as an individual than being humanized or being treated as a toy or even an object than as human. For his idea on dialogue, it gives important on distributing equal power, justice and opportunity to everyone. It gives all individuals to live equally where there will be no bully person and bullied person for they know how to respect each other. It is also good where it discusses about the relationship of the teacher and student in a classroom for better communication and interaction between them. It also gives ideas on developing the critical thinking of student for them to be practical in life. They will be able to face their own problems and think of solutions. It develops their own independency, leadership skills and creativity to handle their own life where this encourages them to participate on dialogue and practice of humanization through words and corresponding action. This can help them to transform for the better not for worst. On the other hand, there is disadvantages on the pedagogy of Freire where he shows a theory in education that is not good for the development of the students, the “banking concept”. It shows that the students are being oppressed by the teachers because teachers just deposit or give information where students don’t develop the abilities to create, act and have critical thinking. It is not a matter of give and take but rather give concept only.

Recommendation: It is better if the author added more about significance of teachers in school and give some concrete examples for what teachers doing in the school as oppressor that may reflect on today’s generation. He should also have related on his time for us to compare the situation in the present. But it is indeed a good reflection for good transformation of individual as well as the society.