Paulo Freire

Donaldo Pereira Macedo

Introduction

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Alma

The revolution loves and creates life; and in order to create life it may be obliged to prevent some men from circumscribing life.

Those truly committed to liberation must reject the banking con­cept in its entirety, adopting instead a concept of women and men as conscious beings, and consciousness as consciousness intent upon the world. 

Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferrals of information.

Macy HB

The oppressed find in the oppressor their model of “manhood”

Rationalizing his guilt through paternalistic treaties of the oppressed all the while holding them fast in a position of dependence, will not do.

nhu ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹

Any attempt to "soften the power of the oppressor in deference to the weakness of the oppressed almost always manifests itself in the form of false generosity; indeed, the attempt never goes beyond this. In order to have the continued opportunity to express their generosity" the oppressors must perpetuate injustice as well. An unjust social order is the permanent fount of this "generosity" which is nourished by death, despair, and poverty,. That is why the dispensers of false generosity become desperate at the slightest threat to its source. True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity.

Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes myth. It is rather the indispensable condition for the quest for human completion. 

Fromm said of this consciousness that, without such possession, "it would lose contact with the world." The oppressor consciousness tends to transform everything surrounding it into an object of its domination. The earth, property, production, the creations of people, people themselves, time– everything is reduced to the status of objects at its disposal.

Indeed, the interests of the oppressors lie in "changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation which oppresses them"; for the more the oppressed can be led to adapt to that situation, the more easily they can be dominated. To achieve this end, the oppressors use the banking concept of education in conjunction with a paternalistic social action apparatus, within which the oppressed receive the euphemistic title of "welfare recipients.

They are treated as individual cases, as marginal persons who deviate from the general configuration of a "good, organized, and just" society.

Because love is an act of courage, not of fear, love is commitment to others. No matter where the oppressed are found, the act of love is commitment to their cause-the cause of liberation. And this commitment, because it is loving, is dialogical.

We simply cannot go to the laborers- urban or peasant'— in the banking style, to give them "knowledge" or to impose upon them the model of the "good man" contained in a program whose content we have ourselves organized. Many political and educational plans have failed because their authors designed them according to their own personal views of reality, never once taking into account (except as mere objects of their actions) the men-in-a-situation to whom their program was ostensibly directed.

Alongside the people for the recovery of the peoples stolen humanity, not to "win the people over" to their side. Such a phrase does not belong in the vocabulary of revolutionary leaders, but in that of the oppressor. The revolutionary's role is to liberate, and be liberated, with the people—not to win them over.

It is absolutely essential that the oppressed participate in the revolutionary process with an increasingly critical awareness of their role as Subjects of the transformation. If they are drawn into the process as ambiguous beings, partly themselves and partly the oppressors housed within them —and if they come to power still embodying that ambiguity imposed on them by the situation of oppression- it is my contention that they will merely imagine they have reached power? Their existential duality may even facilitate the rise of a sectarian climate leading to the installation of bureaucracies which undermine the revolution. If the oppressed do not become aware of this ambiguity during the course of the revolutionary proc-ess, they may participate in that process with a spirit more revanchist than revolutionary? They may aspire to revolution as a means of domination, rather than as a road to liberation.

There is no historical reality which is not human. There is no history without humankind, and no history for human beings; there is only history of humanity, made by people and (as Marx pointed out) in turn making them. It is when the majorities are denied their right to participate in history as Subjects that they become dominated and alienated. Thus, to supersede their condition as objects by the status of Subjects-the objective of any true revolution— requires that the people act, as well as reflect, upon the reality to be transformed.

At a certain point in their existential experience, under certain historical conditions, these leaders renounce the class to which they belong and join the oppressed, in an act of true solidarity (or so one would hope). Whether or not this adherence results from a scientific analysis of reality, it represents (when authentic) an act of love and true commitment. Joining the oppressed requires going to them and communicating with them. The people must find themselves in the emerging leaders, and the latter must find themselves in the people.

Cultural synthesis does not deny the differences between the two views; indeed, it is based on these differences. It does deny the invasion of one by the other, but affirms the undeniable support each gives to each other. 

nica

For us, however, the requirement is seen not in terms of explaining to, but rather entering into a dialogue with, the people about their actions. In any event, no reality transforms itself, and the duty which Lukacs ascribes to the revolutionary party of ‘explaining to the masses their own action’ coincides with our affirmation of the need for the critical intervention of the people in reality through the praxis. The pedagogy of the oppressed, which is the pedagogy of men engaged in the fight for their own liberation, has its roots here. And those who recognize, or begin to recognize, themselves as oppressed must be among the developers of this pedagogy. No pedagogy which is truly liberating can remain distant from the oppressed by treating them as unfortunates and by presenting for their emulation models from among the oppressors. The oppressed must be their own example in the struggle for their redemption.

Consciously or unconsciously, the act of rebellion by the oppressed (an act which is always, or nearly always, as violent as the initial violence of the oppressors) can initiate love.

Whereas the violence of the oppressors prevents the oppressed from being fully human, the response of the latter to this violence is grounded in the desire to pursue the right to be human.

However, the restraints imposed by the former oppressed on their oppressors, so that the latter cannot reassume their former position, do not constitute oppression. An act is oppressive only when it prevents men from being more fully human.

But even when contradiction is resolved authentically by a new situation established by liberated workers, the former oppressors do not feel liberated. On the contrary, they genuinely consider themselves to be oppressed. Condi-tioned by the experience of oppressing others, any situation other than their former seems to them like oppression. Formerly, they could eat, dress, wear shoes, be educated, travel, and hear Beethoven; while millions did not eat, had no clothes or shoes, neither studied nor travelled, much less listened to Beethoven. Any restriction on this way of life, in the name of the rights of the community, appears to the former oppressors as a profound violation of their individual rights - although they had no respect for the millions who suffered and died of hunger, pain, sorrow, and despair. For the oppressors, ‘human beings’ refers only to themselves; other people are ‘things’.

"(This book) meets the single criterion of a 'classic': it has outlived its own time and its author's. For any teacher who links education to social change, this is required reading. ....... " [from back cover]

30th Anniversary Edition

finishing up the last chapter of pedagogy of the oppressed & in love with freire's words, poignant and beautiful, as always 🤍 what i love most about reading theory (beyond just learning/ contextualizing the world)... it's always being asked to remember + regularly practice empathy, love, patience.

This text argues that the perceived passivity of the poor is the direct result of economic, social and political domination. The book suggests that in some countries the oppressors use the 'piggy bank' system - treating students as passive, empty vessels - to preserve their authority and maintain a culture of silence. Through cooperation and dialogue, Freire suggests, the authoritarian teacher-pupil model can be replaced with critical thinking so that the student becomes co-creator of knowledge. Crucial to Freire's argument is the belief that every human being, no matter how impoverished or illiterate, can develop an awareness of self, and the right to be heard.

Midori Kobayashi

5/5stars



I don't have words that will do justice to this book. I can only say that this book made me questions so many things and believes I was just taking for granted to date. It was a definite eye-opener. Cannot recommend it enough. It should be a MUST READ in fact.

First published in Portuguese in 1968, Pedagogy of the Oppressed was translated and published in English in 1970. Paulo Freire's work has helped to empower countless people throughout the world and has taken on special urgency in the United States and Western Europe, where the creation of a permanent underclass among the underprivileged and minorities in cities and urban centers is ongoing. This 50th anniversary edition includes an updated introduction by Donaldo Macedo, a new afterword by Ira Shor and interviews with Marina Aparicio Barber�n, Noam Chomsky, Ram�n Flecha, Gustavo Fischman, Ronald David Glass, Valerie Kinloch, Peter Mayo, Peter McLaren and Margo Okazawa-Rey to inspire a new generation of educators, students, and general readers for years to come.

50th Anniversary Edition

aisha

“It happens that peace cannot be bought; peace is experienced in solidary and loving acts, which cannot be incarnated in oppression.”

Brigid Hogan

The ideas in this book are so so vital. But there HAS to be a better translation.

John Balek

Read this for the Noname bookclub. It's amazing how timeless this book is. It's interesting to see how it has influenced revolutions and political uprisings over the last 50 years while also feeling more relevant than ever in our current day. Everyone can get something out of this book regardless of where you were placed in society. It was great to see where some of our modern ideologies on education and labor originated.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed Introduction

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