Do any of the points made by Freire speak to you?

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Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed and the idea of what has come to be known as "critical pedagogy" pose education in a different light than many other educational philosophies.

Do any of the points made by Freire speak to you?

Problem solving as a way to link education to the lives of the children speaks to me a lot. But not in a way that is directed to others but in a way that is focused on exploring oneself (Wiseman, 2013, 2.46). Often we learn to think in the way of problem solving by treating others as a problem and solve them in our heads. But to use the critical thinking to laser focus on oneself is the aim offered here. Question the dominant understanding but within one’s own minds.

A problem-posing pedagogy is dialogical and I love it for I hold capacity of dialogue as a base for a life filled with learning (Stinson, 2016, pp.6).

Is there something you intensely disagree with?

I disagree with turning it into an ideology, where the life within the new thought ends. Once a living thought of a mind is turned into an idea to be followed, it dies. For then intellectuals turn it into a sword to protect their own thinking as against others who differ. As long as one stays with the pedagogy of Freire as ‘a way of thinking’, one is safe from getting caught in the web of the domination, while one is fighting the domination of other thoughts.

What are your views on the idea of critical pedagogy?

The fundamental effort of education is to help with the liberation of people, never their domestication (Schor, 1992, pp.1). Critical thinking, the art of questioning, leads one from depth to another depth of minds unwrapping what lies beyond. However, I wonder, where is the place for feeling? Where is the place for allowing intuition to flow through the mind?

I would say that Freire’s educational philosophy is a great step from banking education, which domesticates students, towards a life where one thinks for oneself (Schor, 1992, pp.2). But one must take it as a step and not the destination.


References
  • Schor, I. (1992). Education is politics: Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy. In Paulo Freire: A critical encounter. [pdf] (pp. 24-36). eBook Central in LIRN.
  • Stinson, D. W. (2016). Dewey, Freire, and Foucault and an every evolving philosophy of (mathematics) education. Journal of Research in Curriculum & Instruction, 20(2), 70–78. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1038&context=mse_facpub
  • Wiseman, A. (2013, April 18). Human Rights: Frieres (sic) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Part 1. [Video file]. https://youtu.be/rk6zyEiyaXA





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