A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Pedagogies of Liberation
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Methods or practices of teaching that recognize the inherently political nature of education and aim not, as Paulo Freire puts it in his description of the banking model of education, to produce receptacles of knowledge" to be filled by the teacher, but rather to produce fully self-actualized people. In other words, while dominant education would hold that the role of education is to eradicate any idiosyncrasies an individual is born with and to conform them to an ideal of character determined by the constructs of society, liberatory pedagogy assumes that each individual is born with potentialities that have positive value for that individual and it is good for that individual to develop these potentialities. Pedagogies of liberation, then, hold at their center a celebration of diversity and the infinite variety of types that come about when difference is encouraged to develop. Then, having fostered the inner-development of the individual, liberatory pedagogy moves outward through education based engagement with oppressions to transform the broader society.
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Seeing Through Paulo's Glasses: Political Clarity, Courage, and Humility, a short documentary by the Freire Project on the life and work of Paulo Freire.
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Liberatory pedagogy holds at its center a "counter-politics of knowledge" which affirms that true knowing comes from below, emerges from the context of community struggle, and enables resistance to and transgression of the dominant politics and knowledges which dehumanizes and constructs the millions of people thrown on to the margins by capitalist, colonialist logic as illiterate, unknowing objects. Where dominant pedagogies lift up the 'Europeanized,' individualized thinker as the pinnacle of knowing, pedagogies of liberation hold the experiences of the marginalized as the center of knowing.
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Continuum International Publishing Group Inc. 2007. Print.
In this classic text, Freire articulated his vision for an emancipatory education. Vital to this process is his emphasis on dialogue whereby the “teacher-student” facilitates a problem-solving approach to name and act on the “student-teacher’s” social reality. Freire also elaborated on the conditions of oppression, although his essentialist categories of “the oppressed” and “the oppressor,” and the manner in which these categories ignore the intersections of various oppressions, are problematic. Furthermore, some authors, such as hooks (1994), have appropriately challenged Freire’s sexist language in this text, although Pedagogy of the Oppressed has contributed immensely to understanding oppression and to developing a philosophy and liberatory strategies for people of privilege to work with oppressed people groups. Readers will also find traces of liberation theology throughout the book.
hooks, bell. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Routledge. 1994. Print.
Throughout this collection of essays, hooks raises concerns about the classroom as potentially liberative site and the academy as a hegemonic industry; she issues challenges to that academy and her fellow teachers and learners; she not only denunciates what is wrong but also annunciates clearly and celebrates what has worked; she presents elements of her vision of what could be; and she offers particular strategies for creating and working with learning communities.
In this classic text, Freire articulated his vision for an emancipatory education. Vital to this process is his emphasis on dialogue whereby the “teacher-student” facilitates a problem-solving approach to name and act on the “student-teacher’s” social reality. Freire also elaborated on the conditions of oppression, although his essentialist categories of “the oppressed” and “the oppressor,” and the manner in which these categories ignore the intersections of various oppressions, are problematic. Furthermore, some authors, such as hooks (1994), have appropriately challenged Freire’s sexist language in this text, although Pedagogy of the Oppressed has contributed immensely to understanding oppression and to developing a philosophy and liberatory strategies for people of privilege to work with oppressed people groups. Readers will also find traces of liberation theology throughout the book.
hooks, bell. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Routledge. 1994. Print.
Throughout this collection of essays, hooks raises concerns about the classroom as potentially liberative site and the academy as a hegemonic industry; she issues challenges to that academy and her fellow teachers and learners; she not only denunciates what is wrong but also annunciates clearly and celebrates what has worked; she presents elements of her vision of what could be; and she offers particular strategies for creating and working with learning communities.