Bases of modern child centered education with reference to discovery and dialogue of freire

1. Educational Philosophy of PAULO FREIRE
DOCTRINES OF GREAT EDUCATOR - PAULO FREIRE
Introduction
Paulo Reglus Neves Freire (1921-1997), the Brazilian educator and philosopher, was one of the best
known and most influential radical education theorists in the 20th century. His work has exercised
considerable influence among progressive educators all over the world, especially in the context of
emerging traditions of critical pedagogy, issue-based earning, and social constructivism. His impact
upon peace education, adult education, non-formal education, and critical literacy has been
incalculable. He is widely regarded as the father of the critical pedagogy perspective of education.
Paulo Freire is neither an idealist, nor a realist or a mechanist. Freire denies the view that man is
abstract, isolated, independent and unattached to the world. He also denies that the world exists as a
reality apart from men. In his view consciousness and world are simultaneous. Consciousness neither
precedes the world as the idealist hold nor it follows the world as the materialist believe, Paulo‘s
position is near to the existentialists who give much emphasis on existential man equipped with strong
will power who can transform the world with his own efforts . In short, the role of “man as a Subject in
the world and with the world."
Freire‘s work mainly concerned literacy and the desire to help men and women overcome their sense of
powerlessness by acting in their own behalf. The oppressed, as he called them, could transform their
situation in life by thinking critically about reality and then taking action. Freire believed that the
educational system played a central role in maintaining oppression and thus it had to be reformed in
order for things to change for the oppressed.
Knowledge is not an isolated phenomenon. It comprehends both action and reflection. In his words the
act of knowing involves the dialectical movement which goes from action to reflection and from
reflection upon action to a new action.
BIOGRAPHY AND LIFE SKETCH

2. Paulo Reglus Neves Freire was born September 19, 1921 to a middle class family in Recife, Brazil. Freire
became familiar with poverty and hunger during the ‘Great Depression’ of the 1930s. In 1931, the family
moved to a less expensive city, and in 1933 his father died. In school, he ended up four grades behind,
and his social life revolved around playing pickup football with other poor children, from whom he
learned a great deal. These experiences would shape his concerns for the poor and would help to
construct his particular educational viewpoint. Freire stated that poverty and hunger severely affected
his ability to learn. This influenced his decision to dedicate his life to improving the lives of the poor: “I
didn't understand anything because of my hunger. I wasn't dumb. It wasn't lack of interest. My social
condition didn't allow me to have an education. Experience showed me once again the relationship
between social class and knowledge" (Freire as quoted in Stevens, 2002). Eventually his family's
misfortunes turned around and their prospects improved.
Freire enrolled at Law School at the University of Recife in 1943. Although admitted to the legal bar, he
never actually practiced law but instead worked as a teacher in secondary schools teaching Portuguese.
In 1944, he married Elza Maia Costa de Oliveira, a fellow teacher and had five children.
In 1946, Freire was appointed Director of the Department of Education and Culture of the Social Service
in the state of Pernambuco. In 1961, he was appointed director of the Department of Cultural Extension
of Recife University, and in 1962 he had the first opportunity for significant application of his theories,
when 300 sugarcane workers were taught to read and write in just 45 days. In response to this
experiment, the Brazilian government approved the creation of thousands of cultural circles across the
country.
In 1964, a military coup put an end to that effort. Freire was imprisoned as a traitor for 70 days. After a
brief exile in Bolivia, Freire worked in Chile for five years for the Christian Democratic Agrarian Reform
Movement and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In 1967, Freire published
his first book, Education as the Practice of Freedom. He followed this with his most famous book,
Pedagogy of the Oppressed, first published in Portuguese in 1968.
On the strength of reception of his work, Freire was offered a visiting professorship at Harvard
University in 1969. After a year in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, Freire moved to Geneva, Switzerland
to work as a special education advisor to the World Council of Churches. During this time Freire acted as
an advisor on education reform in former Portuguese colonies in Africa, particularly Guinea-Bissau and
Mozambique.
In 1979, he was able to return to Brazil, and moved back in 1980. Freire joined the Workers' Party (PT) in
the city of São Paulo, and acted as a supervisor for its adult literacy project from 1980 to 1986. When
the PT prevailed in the municipal elections in 1988, Freire was appointed Secretary of Education for São
Paulo.
In 1986, his wife Elza died. After some years he married his former student Ana Maria.
Freire died of heart failure on May 2, 1997 in São Paulo.

3. IMPORTANT WORKS
Education as Practice of Freedom.
Pedagogy of the Oppressed,
Education for Critical Consciousness,
Pedagogy of Hope,
Pedagogy of Freedom.
The Politics of Education.
FREIRE’S PHILOSOPHY
Those who attempt to redress the ills of the suffering of humanity are not leaders who work for the
people, but who work with the people as their servants. This is Friere’s philosophy which he prefers to
be known as ‘Scientific Revolutionary Humanism’. This is essentially a philosophy involving techniques of
adult and non formal education, though the message is applicable to any form of education.
FREIRE’S EDUCATIONAL VIEWS
1
Friere offers in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed a detailed analysis of the short comings of the
prescriptive style of teaching. In prescriptive teaching teacher assumes an authoritarian role. Freire
refers this as the banking system.In the banking system of education the man’s transaction is the act of
transferring information from teachers head and depositing in students heads. Here the students are
the depositories and the teacher the depositor. In opposition to this domesticating system, Friere
suggests a problem posing education which will break the vertical pattern characteristics of the
traditional teacher student relations by establishing a horizontal dialogue. According to Friere “No one
can teach any one else; no one earns alone; people learn together, acting in and on their world”.
a) Aims of Education
According to Friere, the function of education is to humanize individuals through conscious action for

4. the purposes of transforming the world. In such a process education cannot be neutral. It can either be
an instrument of domination or liberation. Educative processes domesticate people where there exists
a dominant culture of silence. In this culture people are taught to accept what is handed down to them
by the ruling elite without questioning. Hence, their understanding of their social reality is limited to
what they are taught and told to accept and believe. The following are the important constructs of
Frier’s educational views:
1. Education is a cultural tool for liberation from oppression. It must give learners the tools to be
creators of their own reality.
2. Education is always a political act. It cannot be politically neutral. It can either be an instrument of
domination or liberation.
3. Education is a communion (the state of exchanging thoughts and feelings) between participants in a
dialogue characterized by a reflexive, reciprocal, and socially relevant exchange, rather than the
unilateral action of one individual agent of the benefit of the other.
4. Knowledge is not a set commodity that is passed from the teachers to the students. Learners must
construct knowledge from knowledge they already possess.
5. Learning begins with action. It is a process where knowledge is presented to learner, then shaped
through understanding, discussion and reflection.
6. Students should not be viewed as an empty account to be filled in by the teacher (banking system of
education). Teachers should know that students have life experiences and their own knowledge that is
key in shaping their education and learning.
7. Education is a phenomenon in which educator and educatee educate each other through the act of
education.
8. Education is a critical understanding of reality. Reading the word cannot be separated from reading
the world. Education should raise the awareness of the students so that they become subjects, rather
than objects, of the world.
9. The method of education must starts from the situation and reality of people. Their life situation is
made into a problem posing situation.
10. Educational practice is not an extension but a communication. Communication involves mutual
dialogue whereas extension involves transplanting knowledge.
b) Teaching tools
Dialogue as a pedagogical tool: Friere accepted dialogue as a method of learning. Dialogue is the
encounter between men, mediated by the world, in order to change the world. Dialogue is the principal

5. tool of problem posing method. It is a co-operative activity involving mutual respect in which teachers
and students learn together. It is a talk with the other, instead of talking to the other. Dialogue requires
a co-equal relationship between teacher and student. It begins with the experiences of learners.
Praxis as a synthesis of reflection and action (theory and practice) in the learning process: Praxis means
the use of a theory in a practical way. Friere considered praxis (informed action) as the goal of problem-
posing education. He defined praxis as reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it. It
is a complex activity by which individuals create culture and society, and become critically conscious
human beings. It involves development of critical consciousness combine with social action.
c) Paulo Freire’s methodology
The 3 Basic Steps of this Methodology are: to SEE, to ANALYZE, to ACT. These steps are repeated over
and over again, following the changes in the situation as experienced by the participants.
・ TO SEE the situation lived by the participants
・ TO ANALYZE this situation, analyzing the root causes (socio-economic, political, cultural, etc.)
・ TO ACT to change this situation, following the precepts of Social Justice.
Paulo Freire methodology in depth
I. FIND THE PROBLEMS (GENERATIVE THEMES)
Participants research – get to know participants and their life and work settings
get the background and facts about the issues that affected them
understanding / READING the World in which we live together
II. PRODUCE THE CODES (CODIFICATION)
create a material representation ( a drawing, a video, a photo, a puppet show, an audiotape, etc. )
tocapture the GENERATIVE THEMES.
create a play or skit including many or all of the GENERATIVE THEMES
what are your ideas?

6. III. THREE STEPS INDUCTIVE QUESTIONING PROCESS
A. TO SEE THE SITUATION AS PARTICIPANTS EXPERIENCE IT
describe the situation shown in the CODE
define the problems in the situation
make the link between the participants and the problems
B. TO ANALYZE THE SITUATION (The Problem Tree)
Why did this happen?
How is this perpetuated and/or sustained?
What are the immediate effects and the root causes of these problems? (socioeconomic, political,
cultural)
C. TO ACT TO CHANGE THE SITUATION
short term Action (next 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months: affecting one of the Problem Tree‘s leaves)
Long term Action (next 3 months, 3 years: affecting one of the Problem Trees‘ source roots )
There are no ready-made formulas to apply the Paulo Freire methodology in the classroom and this is
perhaps the biggest difficulty to many educators. They have to free themselves of the traditional
concepts of the educational process where the educator is the sole origin of knowledge and the
students are only the receptors of this knowledge, and they only way they have to learn this is also the
practice. They have to practice the Freire Methodology in order to learn to use it. Theory and Practice
are inseparable: Theory is a moment of practice; from the practice is born the theory, and the theory
goes back to the practice to be changed and reformulated.
ACTION + REFLECTION = PRAXIS
A CONCEPT OF EDUCATION – A CONCEPT OF THE PROCESS OF PRODUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE
The most important precept of this methodology is: The learners are the Subject in the learning process,
and not the object – as they have to be Subjects of their destiny, and not objects. The educator and the

7. learners are equal participants in the learning process. This process is developed by a continuous
dialogue between the educator and the learners
d) Role of teacher and learning situation
Egalitarian teacher –student relations: A unique feature of Frier’s pedagogy is the egalitarian, respectful
relations between the teacher and learner. The teacher-student relationship is horizontal and
democratic, flourishing in an atmosphere of mutual acceptance and trust. In problem posing method,
both the teacher and student teach and both learn. Equality among the participants of dialogue is a sine
qua non condition for its success. In this system, terms like the teacher of the students and the students
of the teacher cease to exist and a new term emerges: teacher-student with students-teachers.
The co-construction of knowledge : According to Friere, new knowledge is produced in the classroom
from the interaction between students’ and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing
inquiry learners pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other. To facilitate co-construction
of knowledge, teachers should respect students’ knowledge and remain humble about the limitations of
their own knowledge.
Learning circles: The learning circle is a non-hierarchal 'class' model where participants can discuss
generative themes which have significance within the context of their lives. This involves creating a
democratic space where every ones' voice has equal weight age. The conditions needed for this have to
be actively created as it does not often occur naturally. This can mean challenging cultural, gender and
other status related power relationships and stratifications. This ―critical and liberating dialogue, also
known as ―culture circles, is the heart of Freire's pedagogy. The circles consist of somewhere between
12 and 25 students and some teachers, all involved in dialogic exchange. The role of the teachers in this
civic education is to participate with the people/students.
CHARACTERISTICS OF FREIRE’S PEDAGOGY
The central premise of Freire’s theory is that no education is neutral-it can be used for domination or
liberation. His pedagogy calls for collective action and continuingly struggle on the art of the oppressed
to liberate themselves from all forms of domination. The important features of his revolutionary
pedagogy are briefed hereunder:
1. Education for liberation: Frier’s pedagogy is an educational plan to liberate those who are

8. oppressed. The existing system of education is an education for domestication which denies people the
power to think for themselves and become architects of their own destinies. Liberating education
provides the learners with a critical perception of their own social reality which would enable them to
know their democratic rights to participate in social transformation.
2. Education for conscientization: Friere’s pedagogy aims to cultivate conscientization or critical
consciousness (critical awareness) in the learner. Conscientization is the ability to critically perceive the
causes of social, political and economic oppression and to take action against the oppressive elements
of society. It is a state of in-depth understanding about the world and resulting freedom from
oppression.
3. Problem posing education: Problem-posting is an alternative methods of education suggested by
Friere instead of the existing authoritarian method which he ironically called banking education. In the
banking model of education, the teacher owns knowledge and deposits it in students. The problem
posing method is based on the principal that a student learns better when he creates knowledge and
deposits it in students. The problem posing method is based on the principal that a student learns
better when he creates knowledge and when knowledge is created for him. This method starts from the
life situation and reality of learners. Their life situation is made into a problem posing offers all subject
matter as historical products to be questioned rather than as central bank wisdom to be accepted. It
encourages students to become active in thinking about and acting upon their world.
4. Transformative social justice learning: Friere’s pedagogy is essentially transformative learning as it
fosters and develops capacities that invite people to live more meaningfully. It helps the people to
question their own assumptions, beliefs, feelings, and perspectives to reach a deeper and richer
understanding of themselves and their world.
FREIRE’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION
Freire’s ideas are specially relevant to the teachers and educators in the developing countries. This
is especially true in case of adult, non formal and extension education programs, though the values of
his philosophy and techniques cannot be ruled out for the education of the younger age groups as well.
Paulo Friere is acknowledged as one of the most powerful voices in education theory and practice of our
time. His revolutionary pedagogical theory has influenced educational and social movements
throughout the world and whose philosophical writings influenced academic disciplines that include
theology, sociology, anthropology, applied linguistics, pedagogy and cultural studies. His specific
contributions are the following:

9. 1. Freire viewed education as a deep political project oriented towards the transformation of society.
This approach has been crucial to the education of many revolutionary societies in Latin America and
Africa (Brazil, Chile, Caribbean region, Botswana, Guinea, Bissau, Nicaragua, Tanzania etc.)
2.His work has exercised considerable influence among progressive educators all over the world,
especially in the context of emerging traditions of critical pedagogy, issue-based earning, and social
constructivism. His impact upon peace education, adult education, non-formal education, and critical
literacy has been incalculable. He is widely regarded as the father of the critical pedagogy perspective of
education.
3. His pedagogy starts from a deep love for, and humility before, poor and oppressed people and a
respect for their common sense. This humility and respect helped to bring the teacher and learner to the
same platform were knowledge is generated and shared for the benefit of the society.
4. Freire made education a communion (exchanging thought the feeling ) between participants in a
dialogue characterized by a reflexive, reciprocal, and socially relevant exchange, rather than the
unilateral action of the individual agent for the benefit of the other.
5. Freire’s pedagogy allowed intellectuals to make useful contribution to the most marginalized
people’s struggle for social change .
6. Freire provided the conceptual tool to student and teacher with which they critically interrogate
them so as to minimize their domesticating influences.
7. His revolutionary pedagogy inspired millions of students and teachers all over the world to unlearn
their race, class and gender privileges and to engage in a dialogue to reach at a critical awareness of the
social realities in which they are living.
8. His critical pedagogy demobilized people from the oppressive yoke of banking education .
9. The dialogical problem-posing method of education, proposed by freire, is the basis of present day
problem-based learning which invites the oppressed (learner) to explore their social reality as a problem
to be transformed.
10. Freire’s pedagogy was considered in agreement with the anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist
movement throughout the world. Thus, it has given momentum to the movements aimed to build a
more just and egalitarian society.
11. His insistence on dialogue and his discussions of egalitarian teacher-student relations provide the
basis for peace education pedagogy.

10. 12. Freire proposed dialogue and horizontal relationship between teachers and learners, and
encouraged active learning.
13. Liberating education, propound by freire, involves a process of humanizing people who have been
oppressed. It empowers oppressed people to question their position in society.
RELATED AREAS
1) CRITICAL PEDAGOGY
Critical pedagogy is an educational approach for developing critical consciousness or critical
awareness in the learner. Critical consciousness is ability to Critically perceive the causes of social,
political and economic oppression and to take action against the oppressive elements of society.
Critical pedagogy enables student to question and challenge domination, the beliefs and practices
that dominate.
Criticalpedagogy is defined as an education methodology that seeks to increase student awareness
of the hidden curriculum’s inequalities and multiple form of oppression that exist in the society, and
encourage them to take step towards creating a more democratic and equitable society.
Critical pedagogy takes as a central concern the issue of power in the teaching and learning
context. It focuses on how and in whose interests knowledge is produced and ‘passed on’ and view the
ideal aims of education as emancipator. It considers how education can provide individuals with the
tools to better themselves and strengthen democracy, to create a more egalitarian and just society, and
thus to deploy education in a process of progressive social change.
The aim of Freir’s critical pedagogy is to restore to marginalized groups their stolen ‘voice’, to
enable them recognize identify, and give their name the things in the world
Characteristics of critical pedagogy
1. Critical pedagogy is based on the presumption that all education is pedagogy
2. It provides the learner with tools to better themselves and define the world .
3. Its approach is issue based or problem based .

11. 4. It provides the learner with the tools to analyze critically how and on whose benefit the knowledge is
constructed.
5. Critical pedagogy transforms the learner from objects to subjects.
6. It aims to create a more egalitarian and just society.
7. It transforms the learner from the role of passive listener to active participants.
8. Critical pedagogy argues for an approach to education that is rooted in the experiences of
marginalized peoples.
9. It is focused on dialogue instead of a one-way transmission of knowledge.
10. It envisages a transformed world, i.e., a more democratic, more just and more egalitarian world.
11. Critical pedagogy needs to create new forms of knowledge through its emphasis on breaking down
disciplinary boundaries and creating new spaces where knowledge can be produced
2. BANKING SYSTEM OF EDUCATION
The term ‘banking system education’ is a phrase used ironically by Paulo Freire to describe the
prevailing system of education, He called the traditional system of education as ‘banking education‘
because in this system teachers make deposits of information and knowledge into the empty accounts
of students, in a similar manner one operates a bank account. The traditional education, as conceived
by Friere, is an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the
depositor. In this system of education, the teacher lectures, and the students receive, memorize, and
repeat.
Characteristics of Banking Education
1. The teacher teaches and the students are taught.
2. The teacher knows everything and the students know nothing.
3. The teacher thinks and the students are thought about.
4. The teacher talks and the students listen-meekly.
5. The teacher disciplines and the students are disciplines.
6. The teacher chooses and enforces his choice, and the students comply.

12. 7. The teacher chooses the program content, and the students adapt to it.
8. The teacher chooses the program content, and the students adapt to it.
9. The teacher confuses the authority of knowledge with his own professional authority, which he sets
in opposition to the freedom of the students.
10. The teacher is the subject of the learning process, while the pupils are mere objects.
3) PROBLEM POSING EDUCATION (PPE)
Problem-posing is an alternative method of education suggested by Paulo Friere instead of the
existing authoritarian and oppressing banking education. It is based on the principal that a student
learns better when he creates knowledge and when knowledge is created for him. The term problem
posing is used because in this type of education the whole learning is driven by a problem that pop up
from the life situation of the learners. On the other hand, in problem posing education, learning always
begins from a problem thrown up in the classroom. The problem is posed so that the students discover
that they need to learn some new knowledge before they can solve the problem. The responsibility of
the teacher is to diversity subject matter and to use students’ thought and speech as the base for
developing critical understanding of personal experience, unequal conditions in society, and existing
knowledge.
Characteristics of Problem Posing Education
1. Problem-posing education encourages students to become active in thinking about and acting upon
their world.
2. It involves co-creation of knowledge in which the teacher and students learn together.
3. Dialogue is the method of problem-posing learning.
4. Problem posing method opens doors to critically analyze the hidden curriculum.
5. The teacher just acts as a mediator and organizer, and barely comes up with any ideas.
6. Encourages the students to think critically.
7. It ensures egalitarian teacher-student relations.
8. Problem posing ignites praxis and leads to action.
9. In the problem-posing method teachers and students learn together through dialogue.
10. This method starts from the life situation and reality of learners.

13. Banking System and Problem-posing
System: A comparison
Banking System of Education
Consider education as a process of transferring
knowledge
Teacher owns knowledge and he teaches the
students.
Consider students as passive and inert individual
learners.
Learners are involved in the mission of
knowledge registering.
It is oppressing in its nature
In involves transference of available knowledge
Characterized by vertical teacher pupil relations
Teacher-centered curricula
Decontextualized study of information
Facts learned in isolation
Mainstream, canonical text
An emphasis on memorization and regurgitation.
Problem-posing Education
. Education as an act of cognition taking place
through dialogue
. No one is the owner of knowledge, Men teach
each other.
. Consider students as interactive social learners.
. Learners are involved in the mission of knowledge
creation
It is liberating in its nature.
It involves co-construction of new knowledge
Characterized by horizontal teacher-pupil
relations
Student-centered curricula
Contextualized study of perspectives
Facts, beliefs, and questions connected
Diverse, multicultural texts
An emphasis on exploration and application.

14. CONCLUSION
Paulo Freire devised and tested an educational system, as well as a philosophy of education, over
several years of active involvement. His Educational thrust centers on the human potential for creativity
and freedome in the midst of politico-economic and culturally oppressive structures. His philosophy and
system became so current and universal that the ‘generative themes’ he advanced have remained at the
centre of educational debates for the last three decades.
Paulo Freire is often described as a humanistic, militant educator who believed that solutions in
education are always found in concrete context. Students should be asked what they want to learn.
There must be a collaboration, union and cultural synthesis. The educator should not manipulate
students but should also not leave them to their own fate. He should direct tasks and study not order
students. He believed that the liberating educator invites students to think. This allows the student to
make and remake their worlds and become more human. Freire believed that communication should be
simple even if the information is complex. Simplifying, allows for deeper accessibility by the students.
Perhaps, nobody has made the world so acutely aware of the subversive potential of education as Paulo
Freire. He converted the class room an arena of empowerment for the poor and the oppressed.