Paulo Freire and Liberation Philosophy of Education

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ANNOTATED ESSAY 02
Selected phrases from the reading material Paulo Freire and Liberation Philosophy
of Education by Eduardo Duarte
“The highly influential critical theory of Paulo Freire exemplifies what Martin Jay
refers to when he describes the development of critical theory through dialogue.
Freire’s application of Marx is articulated in his Pedagogy of the Oppressed,
which is a philosophical account of the grassroots adult literary project he
undertook in Brazil that replicated the literacy campaigns of Cuban revolution.
Freire identified his project the work of ‘the radical, committed to human
liberation,’ and as such it is an unambiguous testing of Marx’s 11th thesis: “the
more radical a person is, the more fully he or she enters into reality so that,
knowing it better, he or she can better transform it.”
Looking on the current circumstance of Brazil’s amid the time of Paulo Freire, one
can verify how he was in fact spurred to type in his predominant work on Pedagogy of
the Oppressed. Politically speaking, it was a dictatorial tyranny, where control is
concentrated in little number of elites the exercise of power favorably merely for those on
the upper- class individuals. 1
Economically, the rich and the poor are two separated class.
The poor suffered from continuous poverty and hunger while the rich is observably
parted. With respect to education, the illiteracy rate was high compared to learned
individual. In these situations, Freire hoped to believe he will be able to free these
oppressed people. Though he believed, majority of his fellowmen live in “ignorance” and
“culture silence.”2
Oppressed individuals do not know to see themselves as part of the
society. Since living in numbness, they were not able to free themselves from this
oppression. In this way, Freire’s idea of Critical Pedagogy was profoundly established in
this impact, to free oppressed from uncaring oppression.
“The critique of banking education appears in the second chapter of Pedagogy of
the Oppressed. “Freire’s analysis of banking education as destructive of human
freedom is close to being the classic criticism of all didactic and teacher-centered
1
Yi- Huang Shih, International Education Studies, “Some Critical Thinking on
Paulo Freire’s Critical Pedagogy and Its Educationl Implications,” (2018), Vol. 11, No. 9,
64.
2
Ibid.

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forms of education” (Elias 1994, p. 114). At the core of banking education is what
Freire names the ‘narrative character’ of authoritarian teaching. “This relationship
involves a narrating Subject (the teacher) and patient, listening objects (the
students)” (Freire 1994, p. 52). In the traditional education setting the relationship
between instructor and student is asymmetrical, with the teacher desiring total
control over the ‘learning’ process.”
Freire’s primary concern is how to teach individuals to liberate from the culture of
silence and to meet needs of humankind and to create a just society this concern of Freire
clearly planning to elevate them from oppression. Freire contends that, by just education,
freedom is conceivable. For this reason, Freire’s freedom of education can alter people’s
recognition of outside reality for freedom it works better approaches of comprehending
realities. Individuals see marvels independent to its outside variables. Such as, this the
reason of his freeing instruction.
Freire’s critical pedagogy focuses on the struggle for the liberation of the poor. He
rejected the banking education thus become an act of depositing, in which the students
are the depositories and the teacher is he depositor. Students are inactive receptors of
information from the instructors. Rather than communication, students remain sit out of
gear with respects to basic awareness. Educator overwhelms students as in the event that
they are the sole holder of information and understudies are fair a purge bank required
to be filled.
In Freire’s moral philosophy, praxis and dialogue are closely related; genuine
dialogue represents a form of humanizing praxis. In his mind, communicative action
from both students and learners are very much essential. In dialogical discussion,
worldly background mediated by language forms the equal knowledge of the two sides.
Teachers are seen as an equal possessor ok knowledge with students as observed in the
dialogue. By this approach, it creates mutual relationship which acknowledges both sides
as subjective learner. In other words, problem- based dialogue necessitates dialogue for
recognizing reality. In dialogue, students are involved in social conditions, phenomenon,
and conditions of life and criticize their situation rather than involving in mere scientific

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issues. The outcome of Freire’s problem- based education is educating people who
achieve vision, recognition and abilities of changing their life.
Moreover, Freire stressed that education is the practice of freedom and education
should be an activity of freedom.3
Freedom in education is diverse from the common
viewpoint and idea of freedom. Educational freedom, for the teachers, is to empower
students, they ought to hone exchange and problem- posing education as the proposed
instruction of Freire. This shape the learning process, students are locked in of tuning in
diverse viewpoint, getting up from social issues and transforming the world. The
methods of manifesting the freedom of students include: (1) developing education that
“dematerializes” students, (2) practicing “non- dogmatic” education, and (3) the creation
of “free” atmosphere in the educational environment, (4) students have the opportunity
to choose their mode of existence, (5) respecting the human rights of students’ self-
determination, and (6) respecting student’s autonomy. Based on the abovementioned
strategies, the picture of humanizing instruction can be shaped. Over all, through the
humanizing praxis of education, teachers can practice educational based freedom,
teachers and students can advance their mindfulness of reality and the capacity to
transform it.4
“The disconnected nature of the curriculum is the tool of oppression that
constructs what Freire describes as the “dominating” and “authoritarian”
classroom, an environment of schooling that is cultivated by a monological
dissemination of knowledge. Within such a setting there is an ‘inadequacy of
dialogue’.”
In Freire’s curriculum planning perspective, teaching is an instrument for
increasing people’s critical consciousness that their mental consciousness prevented
3
Paulo Freire translated by M. B. Ramos, Education for Consciousness (New York:
The Continuum Press, 1997).
4
Y. H. Shih, Educational Journal of Nhcue, “Exploring the Methods of Appearing
the Freedom and Autonomy of Students in Moral Education,” (2013), Vol. 2, No. 30, 1- 27.

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because of political and social conditions of the society.5
In this respect, conferment of
critical consciousness is considered as beginning point of curriculum planning process in
Freire’s viewpoint. It is conceivable to attain such consciousness through looking into
critical standards of curriculum planning.
In fact, he has endeavored to center educational planning on this truth, that any
educational curriculum planning ought to be based on existing realities of the low classes
of society. it is evidently observed in numerous cases that curriculum planning is
controlled based on wants and needs of higher classes of society. Since Freire curriculum
plan derived from learner’s experiences and their life realities, educational plans should
be developed based on the help of professors, experts, parents, teachers, local groups,
and needs and realities of social life.6
In this setting, Freire centers on the association of
guardians and students, school boards on making and creating the favorable and
majority rule curriculum framework. This implies that, curriculum must not ground on
curriculum creators, commissioners and school agents alone but looking for the
consultancies and recognizing the different examinations from distinctive situations, and
circle of individuals of the students.
Moreover, process of knowledge expansion and development is done with
practical participation in work and economic effort simultaneously. Thus, educational
planners are not actually separated from economic production process. It says that, the
structure of curriculum underlies to the economic production of the society. In Freire’s
education, the distinct stages of schools should not be separated from its important role
in the economic production. As he clarifies, educational planning makes tangible
realization on the economic production.
5
S. H. Shim, Teaching and Teacher Education, “A Philosophical Investigation of
the Role of Teachers: A Synthesis of Plato, Confucius, Buber, And Freire” (2008), Vol. 24,
515- 535.
6
P. McLaren, Freirean Pedagogy, Praxis and Possibilities (Taylor and Francis e-
Library, 2005), 3-4.