Pedagogy of the Oppressed

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Paulo Friere’s piece Pedagogy of the Oppressed contests the reader’s previous impressions of the learning process while dichotomizing its various aspects in order to limn the importance of dual roles of those involved in the classroom environment. As the author expects, the reader enters into a piece of literature with their own preconceived notions of the subject on which the author is commenting. In the case of Paulo Friere, this is obvious. Firere comments that, “A careful analysis of the teacher-student relationship… reveals its fundamentally narrative character”. His explanation of the teacher student relationship reveals the readers assumption of his subject matter. ` In Friere’s first dichotomy of education the teacher lectures, “…about reality as if it were motionless, static, compartmentalized, and predictable” which in turn loses the interest of the student. In doing this, the teacher is doing nothing for the student, but engaging in what Friere calls “the banking concept of education”. The banking concept involves direct lecture of the teacher on any topic, going over each aspect expecting the student to simply memorize rather than understand what they are learning. Thus, the teacher is making a “deposit” into the “bank” or mind of the student where the information sits accordingly. Secondly, Friere elaborates on what he calls “problem posing education”. In this process of education the traditional roles applied in banking education disappear whereas, it is no longer the teacher directly lecturing the student and the student having a passive role in the classroom. Through different classroom interactions the teacher is not the only one who teaches, the students contribute to the teaching and the student isn’t the only one learning, the teacher comes to learn as well. Instead of static learning, the student will,” feel increasingly challenged and

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