Work · Latin American & Caribbean Philosophy
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Written in Chilean exile: education either domesticates or liberates – learning as dialogue in which teachers and students name and transform their world.
Introduction
Paulo Freire, whose adult literacy campaigns in north-eastern Brazil had led to his imprisonment and exile after the military coup of 1964, wrote the book in Chile. It first appeared in English in 1970; in Brazil it could be published only in 1974. Freire criticises the “banking concept” of education, in which teachers deposit knowledge in passive pupils, and proposes a problem-posing education based on dialogue. Learners start from “generative” words and themes of their own lives and develop conscientização, a critical awareness of social reality that leads to action. Drawing on Hegel, Marx, Fanon and Christian thought, the book is counted among the most cited works in the social sciences.
Connections
Builds on
- Phenomenology of Spirit1807 · Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
- The Wretched of the Earth1961 · Frantz Fanon
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