The Pedagogy of Opressed — Paulo Freire
Book Reflection : So, who is this Freire, everyone talked about? What concept of education he offered?
I have heard many people talk about the concept of education by Freire. Freire said this, Freire said that, according to Freire we have to do this, do that, based on Freire we need to done this, done that. So, who is this Freire, everyone talked about? And what he did so much about education, that brings him until people talk about him way too many times.
Oh, and there I was, discovering about Freire. It was Freire, who I later learned was an educator. He lived in poverty, in opperssion, and in a muted culture in Brazil-where he grew up. Those certain moment in his life, brought him to make a change. Change for the education system-to be precise.
Freire came up with the concept of liberation from education that impressed as a practice of opperession. Although, to say it is an opperession might seems so harsh and immoral, but it is indeed such a word that fits perfectly into education and system in practice.
This idea of oppressive oppression was born out of Freire’s reflective efforts at educational conditions in Chilli and Brazil. No doubt, after real awareness of the condition of oppression, surely the concept of education offered by Freire is liberation from oppression. Yet, this view is not purely of one’s freire, there are many accumulated ideas of previous thinkers that helped inspire Freire. Along like Sartre, Althusser, Mounier and others.
It’s just on how that the idea was presented by Freire in a unique way. He was trying to be reflective of what’s going on in education system in real life. Freire did not hesitate to mention the loopholes that were presumed to be the practice of oppressed in our education. As a result of these relevant issues, this book feels very close to home.
In detail, the book is divided into four chapters. Freire opens up about the meanings of oppression itself, who later deserves the title as an oppressor and who deserves the title as the oppressed. Freire also stated that the oppressed must be fully aware of his position as an oppressed and have a consious to seeking for freedom. Subsquently, if the oppressed not aware of their position, he is either being indifferent that he is in the process of oppression, or becoming lacking the awareness to get out of the circle of oppression.
Into the next section, Freire details on how the system became a stage of oppression. What is the case that makes education so-called as an opperession practices. How educator and educated actors engage in opperession practices. Other thing as one of freire’s constant focuses is critical consciousness. It should be- says Freire, humans are curious creatures in these universe, we gain so much curiosity about everything, about this and that, how it works, how it implemented, and others. Those questions are present because of the critical awareness and consciousness are within us. However, in the education of the oppressed, that critical consciousness tends to be turned off and ruled out.
Admittedly, in the things we often encounter in our lives for example, an educated only has the right to know A is B without bothering to know why A is B, why it is necessary to learn A and B, what effect A has on B, or such things.
Come to an end, where Freire displays a liberating educational model. That is education that can help people to improve critical consciousnes, to gain the knowledge not merely because of the system tells us to, but because we aware about the needed of learning. The concept where students are placed as the center of pedagogical activities, not the other way around.
The educational process should be an open space, full of dialogue, conceptual, humanist, and present in equality. The equality that teachers and student is not the absolute position–because at any time, teachers can become a student and the student can become teachers–which can also be referred to as equals.
As I am being honest, I think this book should be thrust to everyone, not just to teachers or educator. To raise awareness about the concept of education is liberating. When I finished this book, I came to the question, is the education nowdays present as a form of liberation or still trapped in a practice of oppression?
I also write this book feflection on my blog, in Indonesian version. If you want to read it, go check on :
