1

Personal Details
Principal Investigator Prof. A. Raghuramaraju Department of Philosophy
University of Hyderabad
Paper Coordinator Prof. A. Raghuramaraju Department of Philosophy
University of Hyderabad
Dr. C. Bharath Kumar School of Humanities and Social
Sciences, IIT Indore
Content Writer Dr. Kim Díaz Department of Philosophy,
University of Texas at El Paso
Content Reviewer Prof. T. K. NizarAhmed Retired Professor,
SSUS Kalady
Language Editor Miss Aparajita Basu Consulting Editor,
Philadelphia, USA

Description of Module
Subject name Philosophy
Paper name Philosophy of Education
Module Name/Title Paulo Freire and his Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Module Id 12.13
Prerequisites Undergraduate background in political philosophy
Objectives To learn about and analyse Freire's insights in Pedagogy of the
Oppressed
Key words Colonization, conscientização, critical pedagogy, adult literacy, dialogics
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Paulo Freire and his Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Paulo Freire's book Pedagogy of the Oppressed was written in 1968 and first published in
Spanish, also in 1968. It was subsequently translated to English, Italian, French and German. Although
Freire was Brazilian and a native speaker of Portuguese, he was not able to publish this book in Brazil
until 1975, seven years after he wrote it.1 This is because at this time, Paulo Freire was living in Geneva,
Switzerland, exiled from Brazil due to political reasons. The following section provides some
biographical and historical background on Freire and Brazil so we are better able to appreciate and
understand the ideas developed in Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
It is important to understand that much of Paulo Freire's initial work on literacy was motivated by
the children and grandchildren of former Brazilian slaves. Brazil became a Portuguese colony in 1500,
and remained one until 1822.2 During this time, the Portuguese engaged in the kidnapping of Africans in
order to enslave and exploit their labour in Brazil. These people were made to work primarily in mines
and plantations. The institution of slavery remained until 1888 when Brazil was the last country in the
American continent to abolish slavery. During the time that Brazil was a Portuguese colony, it was
primarily a source of income for the Portuguese. This meant that the Portuguese did not invest in
Brazilian infrastructure. No schools were set up and the first newspaper press did not come into existence
until 1808. This is relevant because the illiteracy rate was very high during the late 1950s and early 1960s
when Paulo Freire was working in Brazil. For instance, the population of the northeastern region of
Brazil in 1962 was 25 million, and of these, approximately 15 million were illiterate.3
Paulo Freire was born in 1921 in Recife to a middle-class family. During the depression of the
1930s his family suffered economically and their situation was aggravated by Paulo's father dying of
arterial sclerosis when Paulo was 13 years old. For several years, Paulo's mother and his three older
siblings struggled to make ends meet. Most importantly, Paulo experienced hunger, and the
dehumanizing experience of being poor. These events permanently marked Paulo's character and resulted
in his uncompromising commitment to help people.
Paulo was able to finish school at Oswaldo Cruz in Recife. Mr. Aluízio Pessoa de Araújo, the
principal of this school, allowed Freire to study at a reduced tuition because Freire's mother could not
afford to pay the full tuition. Freire felt indebted to Mr. Cruz and once he graduated, he began to teach
Portuguese language classes at the school. He went on to law school and graduated, but soon after
graduating he found that practising law was not for him, so he went back to being a teacher. It was at this

1 Kirylo, James D. Paulo Freire: The Man from Recife. New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc. 2011.
2 Junior, Caio Prado. The Colonial Background of Modern Brazil. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1969.
3 Freire, Paulo. Politics and Education. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1998. p. 8.
 3

time, in 1947, that Freire became involved with the social agency Serviço Social da Indústria (SESI).
The goal of this agency was to provide social services in the areas of health, housing, education, and
leisure for the Brazilian working class.
We could say that Freire's work as an educator began during this time. He became increasingly
involved in the education of working-class people and developed what he called "cultural circles". These
were in part literacy classes for working-class adults. Although most of his students were illiterate, no one
wanted to describe or think of themselves as such. Also Freire's project did not focus solely on literacy.
This is important for us to understand because at the time, literacy was one of the requirements for voting
in presidential elections, and Freire meant to create a sense of political and personal awareness through
the methods he used to teach as well as the content he shared with his students.
Freire's cultural circles became increasingly popular and shortly before the military coup that
overthrew the Goulart administration, Freire planned to establish over 2,000 cultural circles around Brazil
in order to teach five million adult learners how to read and write within a two-year period. Shortly after
the coup, Freire was accused of being a communist, arrested and tortured. His teaching materials were
confiscated and he spent 75 days in jail. After this time, he was exiled from Brazil, first to Bolivia, then
to Chile, the U.S. and Switzerland. He was finally allowed to return to Brazil in 1980.
The following sections explore Freire's most influential book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. As
you read these sections and hopefully more of Freire's work you might notice the influence on Freire's
philosophy from thinkers and figures such as Karl Marx, Jesus Christ, Frantz Fanon, Antonio Gramsci,
Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Memmi and Erich Fromm.

I. Chapter One
There are a number of important ideas that Freire develops in the first chapter of Pedagogy of the
Oppressed. These are (a) only the oppressed can liberate themselves and their oppressors through love (b)
freedom is a choice we must make for ourselves (c) each of us is both an oppressor and the oppressed (d)
there is a difference between charity and social justice (e) the oppressed must be intimately involved in
each stage of their liberation.
As mentioned in the previous section, Freire worked primarily with the children and
grandchildren of slaves. These were either peasants who worked the land for landlords or inner city
working-class people. Freire begins his book by claiming that the dehumanizing situation under which
many people live is not a given destiny. Dehumanizing conditions are actually the result of unjust
systematic oppression, such as the institution of slavery and later, that of feudalism. These conditions
foster violence in the oppressors (overseers and landlords) and dehumanize the oppressed (slaves and
peasants). At this point in the chapter, Freire points out one of his most significant theses—the oppressed
 4

must seek not to become oppressors when claiming their freedom. Freire tells us that only the oppressed
can liberate themselves and their oppressors, and they must do so through love. When this takes place,
the oppressed will be able to restore their own humanity and that of their oppressors. Following this idea,
Freire tells us that freedom is not something that can be bestowed upon someone, rather, freedom is
something that each of us must claim for ourselves. In other words, a landlord cannot make a peasant
free. The peasant herself must claim her own freedom through her choices.
Freire also points out how there are times that members of the oppressors have a change of heart
and go from being members of the oppressors to seeking the liberation of the oppressed. When this takes
place, Freire tells us to be aware of two things: first, as previously mentioned, no one can bestow freedom
upon another, and second, it is often the case that due to their origin and deeply ingrained patterns of
oppression, these "liberators" almost always bring with them their prejudices. This becomes problematic
because even when they seek to "liberate" the oppressed, they do not trust the people's ability to
understand their own circumstances and seek their own solutions. Consequently, the "liberators" attempt
to be in control of the social change that takes place and continue to believe they know what is in the best
interests of those they claim to liberate.
Freire explains how, just as a "liberator" who is a member of the oppressors, has a change of heart
and seeks to help the oppressed, likewise members of the oppressed class often seek their liberation by
becoming oppressors. Freire explains that these phenomena are due to the ambiguous duality developed
by people who have experienced oppression. The oppressed are at one and the same time both
themselves (the oppressed) and the oppressor, whose consciousness they have internalized. Freire
illustrates this point by telling us how many of the peasants he worked with wanted land reform. He
noticed, however, that many of them did not want land reform so that they would then be the owners of
their own land, instead, they wanted to become landlords and thus have power over other peasants. In
other words, in a system where the only people who seem to have any power are those who are able to
command others, the subservient people come to believe that they can gain power and freedom by
becoming the one who gives orders.
To be clear then, internalization is the process or phenomenon of a person appropriating the
dominant patterns of behaviour, which are often oppressive, such as heteronormativity and racism. For
example a gay person may feel ashamed of their sexuality if they have internalized heteronormative
behaviour, or a person with dark skin will seek to stay out of the sun for fear of becoming darker if he or
she has internalized racism. Conscientização is the process/phenomenon by which we become aware of
social and political contradictions and are thus able to act against the oppressive elements of our reality.
Another important thesis developed by Freire in this chapter is his distinction between charity and
social justice. During his many years working for SESI, Freire noticed that the upper classes displayed a
 5

false generosity towards the oppressed in the form of social programmes. The dispensers of this false
generosity often felt threatened by those they claimed they wished to help (the oppressed). Ultimately,
Freire argues, if social justice were to be in place, there would be no need for charity. Freire concludes the
first chapter by echoing Frantz Fanon and emphasizing how the oppressed must be involved in each step
of their liberation.

II. Chapter Two

The most important idea that Freire develops in chapter two of Pedagogy of the Oppressed is
the distinction between the banking model of education versus a critical pedagogy. In terms of pedagogy,
this is the most important chapter of the book and it is often taught alone in philosophy of education
courses where the instructor may not be able to engage with the rest of Freire's book or other aspects of
his philosophy.
Freire directs his criticism towards teachers who may see themselves as the sole possessors of
knowledge while they see their students as empty receptacles into which teachers must deposit their
knowledge. He calls this pedagogical approach the “banking method” of education. The banking method
is essentially colonizing, given that the colonizer or colonizing culture thinks of itself as the correct and
valuable culture, while at the same time deeming the colonized culture as being in need of the colonizing
culture for its own betterment. The banking method is a violent way to treat students because although the
students are human beings with their own inclinations and legitimate ways of thinking, they are treated as
objects that can be shaped in this or that way, instead of human beings.
The relationship developed through the banking method between the teacher and the students is
characterized by insecurity, suspicion of one another, the teacher's need to be in control and power
dynamics within an oppressive hierarchy. The banking method of education is characterized as a vertical
relationship:
teacher
↓
student
Instead of the banking method, Freire proposes a reciprocal relationship between the teacher and the
students in a democratic environment which allows everyone to learn from each other. Freire's critical
pedagogy or problem-posing education is a democratic approach to reach the democratic ideal, so that the
goal and the process are consistent. Freire explains how the problem with the teacher who intends to hold
herself at some higher level of authority than her students, is that, in not admitting her own fallible nature
 6

and ignorance, she places herself in rigid and deadlocked positions. The rigidity of holding this type of
power dynamic negates the process of education as one of collective inquiry and of knowledge gained.
The critical pedagogy that Freire proposes allows for a horizontal or democratic type of
relationship is thus:
teacher ↔ student
This relationship is a democratic approach to education insofar as both the teacher and the student are
open to the possibility of learning from each other. In this dynamic, no one is above anyone and there is
mutual respect. The teacher and the students acknowledge that everyone has different experiences and
knowledge to offer so that all can benefit, learn and grow from the shared interaction. Because critical
pedagogy utilizes dialogue among human beings who are equals rather than oppressive imposition, Freire
chose the process of critical pedagogy as his pedagogical model instead of tacitly promoting oppressive
relationships through the banking method of education.
The banking method denies the need for dialogue because it assumes that the teacher is the one
who possesses all the answers and the students are ignorant and in need of the teacher’s knowledge.
Consequently, this method does not encourage students to either feel confident about their own ability to
think for themselves or to think critically. The authoritarian dynamic of the banking method is similar to
that of a peasant simply obeying the orders from his/her boss. As was the case with the peasants Freire
worked with, when a person's day-to-day experience is dominated by another person or group of people,
most of the oppressed struggle to develop the ability to think, question, or analyse situations for
themselves.
Freire suggests that teachers problematize the topics being discussed in order to show the students
that readily made answers are not available, that although some questions can have obvious answers,
many of our deeper questions do not. Problematizing the ideas being discussed results in (a) the students
understanding that teachers do not know everything but rather that teachers are also learners and (b)
students feeling more confident in their own search for answers and more comfortable about critically
raising questions of their own. Problematizing promotes dialogue and a sense of critical analysis that
allows students to develop the disposition for dialogue not only in the classroom but also outside of it.

III. Chapter Three

In chapter three of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire further develops ideas he wrote about in
"Extension or Communication" a series of essays that was originally published in 1968.4 In this chapter,

4 Freire, Paulo. Extensión o Comunicación. Colombia: Editorial América Latina. 1974. This text can also be found
in English as Education for Critical Consciousness. London: Bloomsbury Academic. 2013.
 7

he continues to develop his ideas regarding the most appropriate ways of helping. Freire explains how
those who educate, facilitate or help in any way, such as social workers or research teams from
universities, must first learn to listen to and work with those they are helping.
Further developing the ideas from Frantz Fanon, Freire is critical of professionals who have
internalized the patterns of institutional domination in which they were colonized and believe that being
in a position of power or having some form of institutional authority allows them to help the oppressed
with top-down strategies. These “helpers” have come to believe that they have the correct insights,
knowledge, training, expertise and the answers to what the people they are “helping” need. This
"helpers" approach to helping is from those who can and know, to those who, in their eyes, cannot and do
not know:
political leader / teacher / researcher / social worker
↓↓
students / community being helped
This is often a consequence of, and continuation of colonization, so that those who offer their help and
expertise often do not trust that the ones who are the most knowledgeable of the problem and the
solutions needed are actually the people who need the help.
In the process of “helping”, the helpers rob the people being helped of their agency to improve
their own condition. There are ways to help people that promote the autonomy of the person or the group
of people being helped, and other ways of “helping” that impose our assistance on those who ask for our
help. This type of assistance does not lend itself to dialogue insofar as the person in the helping position
claims to know what the person in need of help needs, and the "help" is imposed.
In this chapter, Freire also develops the idea of limit situations. Often, in the process of
discussing certain generative words and themes, the class would come to a "limit situation". These limit
situations described a shared problem that hopefully the class and the facilitator together could overcome.
Freire writes: “The starting point of any social movement lies in men themselves... From this, the take off
point is always with men, in their here, in their now that constitutes the situation in which they find
themselves now immersed, now emerged, now insert. Men can only move from this situation which
determines the perception of what they are experiencing. And in order to do this authentically, it is
necessary that the situation in which they find themselves appears to be not as something fatal nor
insurmountable, but as a challenging situation that is merely limiting them.” 5 For instance, the facilitator
may share with the students pictures of their neighbourhood where a stop sign is missing. After talking

5 Ibid. p. 97.
 8

about it as a class, the students write to their city planners in order to have the stop sign replaced. This
was a challenging situation for the students given that they had never before written their city traffic
department to make requests, yet they were able to overcome this limit situation.
Freire also distinguishes three different types of consciousness in this chapter. The first he calls
magical consciousness. In this stage a limit situation is overwhelming and the individual does not act to
overcome it. In the naive consciousness, the individual may react to the limit situation, but only at an
individual level, without making a connection to the historical and economic reasons for the presence of
the limit situation. At the critical consciousness level, which is the consciousness a critical pedagogy
fosters, the individual analyses the oppressive situation at the economic and historical levels and works
collectively with others to overcome the limit situation.

IV. Chapter Four

In the last chapter of the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire focuses on dialogue. He emphasizes
the right and the need for the oppressed to participate in their own liberation. Echoing Frantz Fanon,
Freire writes how leaders cannot liberate the oppressed, nor can they temporarily use oppressive means in
order to liberate them after the liberatory movement comes to an end. Leaders who deny the participation
of the people they are trying to help effectively undermine their very goal to help. The solutions proposed,
must then be rooted in the experience of those seeking to help themselves.
Freire explains the importance of dialogue and tolerance. He tells us that in order to engage and
be engaged by others in dialogue, it is necessary that we cultivate a sensibility of confidence, humility and
a willingness to risk loving others and allowing others to be who they are. Genuine dialogue is not
possible without these. Freire did not pretend to have any solutions other than to suggest that an open-
ended dialogue could lead us to have a more just and humane world.
To conclude, Pedagogy of the Oppressed is Paulo Freire's most known book, but it is only the
second book out of many others he went on to write. Although Freire did not change his views in any
drastic way, he did modify some of his ideas to be more inclusive of women and other oppressed groups.
 9

References and Further Reading:

Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum, 1970.

———. "The Adult Literacy Process as Cultural Action for Freedom". Harvard Educational Review.
40:2 (1970) 205–25.
———. Education for Critical Consciousness. New York: Seabury Press, 1973.
———. Extensión o Comunicación. Colombia: Editorial América Latina, 1974.
———. "Conscientization". Geneva, World Council of Churches. 1975.
———. Education, the Practice of Freedom. London: Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative,
1976.
———. Pedagogy in Process: The Letters to Guinea-Bissau. New York, A Continuum Book: The
Seabury Press, 1978.
———. The Politics of Education: Culture, Power, and Liberation. South Hadley, Mass.: Bergin &
Garvey, 1985.
——— and D. P. Macedo. Literacy: Reading the Word and the World. South Hadley, Mass.: Bergin &
Garvey Publishers, 1987.
———. Pedagogy of the City. New York: Continuum, 1993.
——— (ed.). Mentoring the Mentor: A Critical Dialogue with Paulo Freire. New York: P. Lang, 1997.
———. Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy and Civic Courage. Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield
Publishers, 1998.
———. Politics and Education. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1998.
———. Teachers as Cultural Workers: Letters to Those Who Dare Teach. Boulder: Westview Press,
1998.
———. Pedagogy of the Heart. New York: Continuum, 2007
———. Pedagogy of Hope: Reliving Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.
Fromm, Erich. The Heart of Man: Its Potential for Good and for Evil. Mexico: Fund University Press,
1967.
hooks, bell. Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope. New York: Routledge, 2003.
Kirylo, James D. Paulo Freire: The Man from Recife. New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc., 2011.
Martínez, Eusebio Nájera. “Paulo Freire: Fragmentos testimoniales de una praxis 3”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN1fpJ0s3gA, 20 February, 2010 (last accessed 28 August 2015).