Book Review: Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

Emily Bryson, Josie Manning, Lucy Moss and Molly Cahlink

Freire, P. (2018). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Burnaby, B.C.: Simon Fraser University

Library.

Many education advocates discuss their theories and ideas for the field of education as a

means to enlighten society one classroom culture at a time. Freire focuses on this aspect of

education through describing the roles of the oppressors and those who are oppressed. Freire

writes that to the oppressors, “humanity is a ‘thing,’ and they possess it as an exclusive right, as

inherited property. To the oppressor, consciousness, the humanization of the ‘others,’ of the

people, appears not as the pursuit of full humanity, but as subversion” (Freire, 1970, p. 59). The

oppressed, then, must be in fear to maneuver out of the box that the oppressed has put them in.

Freire discusses this power imbalance empathetically towards both sides of the argument. These

definitions and explanations are helpful in understanding the power imbalances in society as well

as in the classroom. Freire’s ideas sometimes seem incomplete; the idea that oppressed people

are in charge of restoring the humanity of the oppressed through loving their oppressors can be

problematic for those with pre-existing boundary issues. He exemplifies the problematic power

struggle between students and teachers, sometimes the same as the oppressed and the oppressors

succinctly, stating “…education affirms men and women as beings in the process of becoming—

as unfinished, uncompleted beings in and with a likewise unfinished reality” (Freire, 1970, pg.

84). Rather than embracing students where they are and encouraging the ability to freely discuss

or grow uniquely in the classroom, oppressive teachers can force students to believe that they
live in a specific box that they must not grow out of, or else face the wrath of possibly being

different than the teacher.

After explaining the roles of both the oppressor and the oppressed, Freire describes his

definition of dialogue and its importance. One of the various ways he describes dialouge is,

“Love is at the same time the foundation of dialogue, and dialogue itself.” (Freire, 1970, pg 89)

This quote is referencing his belief that to solve the conflict of oppression, or any other conflict,

both parties must come from a place of love and trust for the opposing view. In a perfect world,

everyone would discuss conflict with love, and truly listen and appreciate what everyone says. It

could be argued, however, that we do not live in a perfect society such as the one Freire

describes, and in order to make change with a negative opposing force, an oppressed person must

be loud, angry, and demand their rights. After discussing the idea of dialogue in a global sense,

Freire discusses dialogue as it pertains to a classroom. Within an educational setting, dialogue

can be more easily attained. In this instance, Freire says teachers need hope and the ability for

critical thinking. When discussing human beings perceived relationship to the world, Freire calls

humans limitations, “limit situations”. “Limit situations” are a product of history, and can be

overcome, although many times difficult. Although this term may be controversial to some,

arguing that their lineage is not a limit, or weakness, but a strength, the term can also be seen as

removing all blame from the human race, and placing it on the actual situation. This ties Freire's

thoughts about love in dialogue, as the reader begins to recognize the danger of placing blame.

Freire’s last chapter is dedicated to how humans can make the positive change, of which

he calls “cultural action”. He explains that this can be done with praxis, which is reflection and

action. Overall, everyone must work together, both the oppressed and those in power must work
equally, or else division will remain. To relate to a classroom environment, educators should use

a problem-posing approach, in which everyone works together, instead of a banking approach.

Freire’s constant relation to the global issue of oppression, and a smaller sized educational issue

of oppression shows that change starts in our school, and will spread throughout.
 Introduction and Preface

Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed begins by discussing a past education

experience that revealed to him the issue of oppression on a global level, and how oppression
exists in a classroom context. He discusses his experience with brazilian education and about the
fear of freedom. Freire explains a class where a former factory worker told his classmates that
he had changed from “naïve” to “critical,” he says talking about the negative effects they were
concerned about. One of the things he explains about was how people might not agree with his
views of oppression and liberation. The opening expresses an idea of what Freire believes is
happening in our current education system, and what readers can expect throughout the book.
 Chapter 1

Freire writes about the basics of oppression. He defines the difference between the
oppressors and the oppressed. Farther into the chapter, Freire discusses the relationship between
the oppressor and the oppressed. The oppressed and the oppressors must work together to
achieve the same level of equality, rather than flipping who is doing the oppressing and who is
being oppressed. Next, he explains that some oppression is so ingrained into the oppressed that
the oppressed have a fear of freedom -- of the newness that would come once oppression ended.
Freire talks about how the oppressed are actually inciting love into the oppressors by making
them equal and in balance rather than overpowering the oppressed. According to Freire,
oppressors need to be enlightened, in a sense, by the oppressed. On pedagogy, Freire writes that
teachers and students must work together to break this oppression and difference from culture.

Key points:

Oppressors hold on the oppressed

“Humanity is a "thing," and they possess it as an exclusive right, as inherited property. To the
oppressor consciousness, the humanization of the "others," of the people, appears not as the
pursuit of full humanity, but as subversion.” (Friere, 1970, pg. 59)

Reasons that the oppressed stay quiet

Self-depreciation is another characteristic of the oppressed, which derives from their
internalization of the opinion the oppressors hold of them. So often do they hear that they are
good for nothing, know nothing and are incapable of learning anything—that they are sick, lazy,
and unproductive—that in the end they become convinced of their own unfitness. (Friere, 1970,
pg. 63)

The real revolution

“They cannot enter the struggle as objects in order later to become human beings.” (Friere,
1970, pg. 68)

Pedagogy of Oppression
“A revolutionary leadership must accordingly practice co-intentional education. Teachers and
students (leadership and people), co-intent on reality, are both Subjects, not only in the task of
unveiling that reality, and thereby coming to know it critically, but in the task of re-creating that
knowledge. As they attain this knowledge of reality through common reflection and action, they
discover themselves as it’s permanent re-creators” (Friere, 1970, pg. 69).
Discussion Questions:
1. How can teaching this pedagogy help revolutionize classroom culture?
2. How could you open a dialogue with those who are oppressed to recognize their
oppression?
3. What does oppression look like in the classroom?
 Chapter 2

In Chapter 2 Freire opens with his idea of what western education looks like. His idea is
seen as teachers are the only ones that talk in the classroom, and student just sit listening not
being allowed to respond. This, he says, is a major flaw in our education system. Freire also
talked about another thing he calls “banking’ in which he says teachers “deposit” information
into students brain and don't make any connections with what they are learning in the classroom.
He later in the book goes into how pedagogy of education works. Students can then understand
where he gets the title of the book from later on in the book. After that Freire goes into a the fact
that students might start to see their education is a part of the natural conflict in freedom. What
Freire is dicussining is how students sit and listen, meaning they can’t have freedom in the
classroom. While some people ideas might disagree, this is what he identifies as a natural
conflict. Emphasized in this chapter is how teachers treat students. He ends with talking about
how the movement for liberation must support oppressed people’s right to make decisions and
make real questions in order to live in our modern society’s pursuit of humanization.

Key Points

Banking Students
“For apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, individuals cannot be truly human. Knowledge
emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing,
hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.” (Freire
1970 pg. 72)

Is our education really an example of freedom

“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. They must abandon the educational goal of deposit-making and replace it
with the posing of the problems of human beings in their relations with the world.” (Freire 1970
pg. 79)

“Problem-posing education affirms men and women as beings in the process of becoming—as
unfinished, uncompleted beings in and with a likewise unfinished reality. (Freire 1970 pg. 84)

Education has many problems

“Problem-posing education does not and cannot serve the interests of the oppressor. No
oppressive order could permit the oppressed to begin to question: Why?” (Freire 1970 pg.89)

Discussion Questions:
1. With the many different ideas of education, is this book focused on public education
mainly?
2. How can Freire make a change in the banking model in order to adapt to today's level?
 Chapter 3

Freire begins chapter three discussing dialogue and explaining how successful dialogue
can take place as well as its ability to make change in the world. First he defines “the word”,
which is a combination of reflection and action. Reflection without action is simply verbalism,
while action without reflection becomes activism, and could result in people not fully
understanding their actions, or the consequences. As he progresses further into the meaning of
dialogue, he begins to describe it in many different ways including radical love, an act of
humility, and an act of faith. The purpose of these descriptions is for the reader to recognize that
dialogue does not simply refer to speaking to one another, but to communicating in a productive,
positive light, in which each voice is heard, valued, and trusted. Freire then moves into the
purpose of dialogue in a classroom setting, referring to an educators need for hope and critical
thinking to provide the foundation for successful dialogue. This is done by including what
students want to know about, and what they already know. This is what he calls, the “problem-
posing model”. He discusses themes, defining it as how human beings see the world and history,
and each of our relationships to the world. This leads into a description of “limit-situations”, a
product of history that may leave someone oppressed, living in conditions that prevent them
from understanding the ideas that began those conditions. To relate to the classroom, themes help
both students and educators to become aware of reality, and open the opportunity to take action
in the world, beginning with dialogue and a mutual trust.

Key Points

Explanation of Praxis
“Within the word we find two dimensions, reflection and action, in such radical interaction that
if one is sacrificed - even in part - the other immediately suffers.” (Freire, 1970, Pg. 87)

Successful Dialogue
“Human existence cannot be silent, nor can it be nourished with false words, but only by true
words, with which men and women transform the world.” (Freire, 1970, pg. 88)

Love’s Role in Dialogue

“Love is at the same time the foundation of dialogue, and dialogue itself.” (Freire, 1970, pg. 89)

Faith’s Role in Dialogue

“Without this faith in people, dialogue is a farce which inevitably degenerates into paternalistic
manipulation.” (Freire, 1970, pg. 91)

Successful Programming and Respect

“One can not expect positive results from an educational or political action program which fails
to respect the particular view of the world held by the people.” (Freire, 1970, pg. 95)

Discussion Questions:
1. If dialogue involves both parties being accepting and approaching the conflict with love,
how can one party get their point across if the other is unaccepting?
2. How may a teacher in an elementary classroom setting lay the foundation for open
dialogue?
3. Freire teaches that, through dialogue, educators and students can take action in the world.
What may an elementary teacher gain from dialogue with their students, to help them
take action in the world?
4. In what aspects of the music community do you think dialogue would be beneficial?
 Chapter 4

This chapter defined how to make change, which Freire describes as cultural action. He
says that in order to do this, we need praxis- reflection and action. In order for praxis to work, we
need theory- a critical framework. Freire says that a revolution for the people is like saying a
revolution without the people. The people in power and the oppressed have to work together and
create a dialogue between them. A revolution where the oppressed are seen as others will
continue to reinforce powers of the privileged. Similarly to education, teachers should use a
problem-posing approach rather than a banking approach.

Key points:
praxis- reflection and action
“ Human activity is theory and practice; it is reflection and action.” (Freire, 1970, p. 125)

Cultural action is education

“When they deny the possibility that the leaders can behave in a critically educational fashion
before taking power, they deny the revolutions educational quality as cultural action preparing to
become cultural revolution.” (Freire, 1970, pg. 136)

We need theory to create a praxis

“Lenin's famous statement: "Without a revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary
movement" means that a revolution is achieved with neither verbalism nor activism, but rather
with praxis, that is, with reflection and action directed at the structures to be transformed. ”
(Freire, 1970, pg. 125)

Dialogue is necessary for a revolution

“Dialogue with the people is radically necessary to every authentic revolution. This is what
makes it a revolution, as distinguished from a military coup.” (Freire, 1970, pg. 128)

Conquest
Antidialogical leaders want power
“The first characteristic of antidialogical action is the necessity for conquest. The antidialogical
individual, in his relations with others, aims at conquering them—increasingly and by every
means, from the toughest to the most refined, from the most repressive to the most solicitous
(paternalism). ” (Freire, 1970, pg. 138)
“Further, once a situation of oppression has been initiated, anti dialogue becomes indispensable
to its preservation.” (Freire, 1970, pg. 138)

Divide and rule

Oppressors deny unity
“ As the oppressor minority subordinates and dominates the majority, it must divide it and keep
it divided in order to remain in power. The minority cannot permit itself the luxury of tolerating
the unification of the people, which would undoubtedly signify a serious threat to their own
hegemony.” (Freire, 1970, pg. 141)

Manipulation
People in power create myths to manipulate the oppressed
“the bourgeoisie presents to the people as the possibility for their own ascent.” pg. 147
“In a situation of manipulation, the Left is almost always tempted by a "quick return to power,"
forgets the necessity of joining with the oppressed to forge an organization, and strays into an
impossible "dialogue" with the dominant elites. It ends by being manipulated by these elites, and
not infrequently itself falls into an elitist game, which it calls "realism." (Freire, 1970, pg. 149)

Discussion Questions:
1. Why is saying a revolution for the people like saying a revolution without the people
2. Why does dialogue distinguish a revolution from a military coup?
3. What are some myths you believe in perpetuated by those in power?