Choice Book: Pedagogy of the Oppressed

 Choice book: Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Pedagogy: Noun

1. The method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept.

Through our schooling we gain many tools of how to teach effectively, but in my experience we get few opportunities to examine teaching in its most basic form. Pedagogy of the Oppressed is a very comprehensive look at teaching through an extremely difficult lens. Through the book Freire gives a scaffolding to help the reader identify weaknesses in their teaching strategy as well as providing a new way of looking at humanity as a whole.

To relate the book to the smaller realm of teaching, its important to first look at what it offers to the “Bigger Picture.” One of the bigger topics discussed in class was how privilege effects how they perceive our reality. It is often hard for people to step outside themselves and identify how privilege really benefits them. This difficulty is due to the “Consciousness” that we human beings have created for ourselves.  Freire states that, “The world which brings consciousness into existence becomes the world of that consciousness” (Freire, 200). What sets us apart from animals is this consciousness that we have developed. I say “developed” because the way we verbally explain our environment—which in turn shapes how we perceive our reality—is constantly being reviewed and changed. We invented the vocabulary that explains what is around us and governs our ability to understand the world around us. A dog is a “dog” simply because that’s what we have decided to call that animal. Here is an example from the book of why the only things we are able to perceive are the things that we have named.

“Now I see that without man there is no world.” When the educator responded: “Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that all the men on earth were to die, but that the earth itself remained, together with trees, birds, animals, rivers, seas,         the stars. ... wouldn’t all this be a world?” “Oh no,” the peasant replied emphatically. “There would be no one to say: ‘This is a world’.” (Freire, 200)

Humanity has created these names and therefore created our consciousness. If we were able to create this consciousness, then we must have the ability to change it.

This creates a foundation for critically examining why oppression still exists in a world with so much knowledge of that oppression. The second major concept from the book is how we humanize ourselves as well as the people around us. What does it mean to be human? What is the definition of successful? What make anyone “better” than someone else? All of these questions are extremely difficult to answer, so it is surprising that little time is spent reflecting on this. Pedagogy of the oppressed doesn’t explain the answer to these questions, but tries to help change your way of thinking about the questions themselves. In short the humanization, or dehumanization, is a process that is ingrained and passively taught from generation to generation.  I use the word passively because both the oppressors and oppressed can be unaware that they are part of this pedagogy. Freire explains that, “This does not necessarily mean that the oppressed are unaware that they are downtrodden, but their perception of themselves as oppressed in impaired by their submersion in the reality of oppression” (Freire, 200).

How can we fix this humanization and dehumanization process that oppresses the individual? I agree with Freire that in order to help, you need to first make sure that you are helping in the right way. If you simply try to take on the role of the oppressed, you alienate their experience and widen the gap toward the solution. The oppressors need to work toward understanding the oppressed and the issues they face by having a dialog with them. “Who are better prepared than the oppressed to understand the terrible significance of an oppressive society? Who suffer the effects of oppression more than the oppressed? Who can better understand the necessity of liberation?” (Freire, 200). By trying to create a solution without having the oppressed leading the dialog is again the oppressors putting themselves in a position of power. We all need to work toward separating ourselves from humanizing others, and focus on our own perception of ourselves. The difficult dialogs between oppressors and the oppressed shouldn’t be to “fix” what is wrong with the oppressed. The goal shouldn’t be to bring people “up” to societal expectation and others down, but rather to redefine how we look at others and ourselves. In this light success will be defined by the individual, and not the perceived expectations of others.