Feminist Reading on Paulo Freire: Freire’s Pedagogy as Feminist Pedagogy

Pedagogy of the Oppressed: Education as Instrument of Liberation

Education can be both liberatory and oppressive. This is what Paulo Freire (1984) strongly posited in his highly influential work, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed.” Pedagogy of the Oppressed has changed the terrain of formal education shifting the focus from formal education to informal or adult education. Freire brought to light liberatory pedagogy or liberatory education.

Freire set the backdrop of his work on the colonized Brazil. Pedagogy of the Oppressed depicts a picture of colonized society with the colonizers as the oppressor, and the colonized, the oppressed. In the book, the oppressed are students who can unlearn their oppression, re-create and transform their realities and liberate their selves, and their oppressors in as well. Freire’s critique on formal education is encapsulated in the “banking model” of education where:

 

Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiques and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat. (p.72)

According to Freire, this banking model serves as an instrument of oppression where students are not able to question the system and the world around them. In the banking model, the teachers are the holders of knowledge – to which the students cannot object or question. This process in traditional formal education dehumanizes both the student and teacher. Freire argued:

Human existence cannot be silent, nor can it be nourished by false words, but only by true words, with which men [women] transform the world. To exist, humanly, is to name the world, to change it. Once named, the world in its turn reappears to the namers as a problem and requires of them a new naming.‎ (p. 88)

Its counterpart, the problem-posing concept of education, is the instrument for liberation. This is widely known as the informal education where there is no hierarchy between the teacher and the student. Here, it is underscored that the student has her own knowledge from her own experience. The student is likewise free to question her realities and in the process, reach her critical consciousness or conscientization. Said Freire:

These elements are now objects of men’s [women’s] consideration, and, as such, objects of their action and cognition. In problem-posing education, men [women] develop their power to perceive critically the way they exist in the world with which and in which they find themselves; they come to see the world not as a static reality, but as a reality in process, in transformation.‎ (p.12)

The relationship between student and teacher is dialogic. To Freire (1984), “the essence of education is the practice of freedom.” Hence, in informal education the students practice their freedom to investigate, analyze and discern on the realities of the world. There is a democratic space where each story is rendered with equal importance. This is where the students reach the awakening of critical consciousness through the investigation of generative themes – which are themes that are of great significance to their daily lives. As the students reach their critical consciousness, they are able to break their culture of silence.

Conscienticao or conscientization is the process where the students become aware or conscious of and reflects on their reality. This shall lead them to take action and transform their oppressed condition. Praxis, the raison d’être of the oppressed, is what Freire (1984) described as informed action derived from the process of “action-reflection-action.” This is where theories are translated into practice – the students reflect on their action, draw lessons from it and apply the learning to their next form of action – which would pave the way to their liberation.

Freire’s Pedagogy as Feminist Pedagogy: A Feminist Class Reflection

Introduction: “Draw me Education”

In the WD 271 Feminist Pedagogy class, the discussion on Freire’s (1984) Pedagogy of the Oppressed started with the members holding clean sheets of paper. On each sheet, the members were to draw, sketch or create any figure, image or symbol that came to mind when they think of the word “Education.” Some retraced their memories from their basic or elementary education. Others visualized their ideals.

The images and figures were varied, each carrying a certain context and story. One was a book, another the alphabet and numbers, an image of nature, a circle which represents a cycle symbolizing the different sources of knowledge, an image of a teacher and a learner where the teacher is physically and figuratively bigger than the learner, a tree, a ruler; and a woman on a higher ground or on a summit which depicts her being free with an awakened consciousness. 

The class then proceeded to discuss the concepts and theories as espoused by Paulo Freire in his book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

Liberatory Education in Philippine Setting

A member of the class shared that it was during the Martial rule where the struggle of the Filipinos against dictatorship reached its peak. Freire’s liberatory or libertarian methods served as among the instruments of liberation for the revolting Filipinos. The plight of the colonized Filipinos strongly relate to the struggle of Brazilians. The context of their oppression was closest to the heart of the Filipinos – the masses were the oppressed class, the Dictator and his cohorts, the oppressor. In the uprising, many activists went to the communities and practiced the principles of liberatory education. The community reaching their critical consciousness, revolted and mobilized to transform their oppression and seek their liberation.

Feminist Pedagogy as Liberatory Pedagogy

The class made a reflection on how Freire’s pedagogy echoes and resonates feminist pedagogy. Like Freire, feminist pedagogy seeks for the liberation of oppressed women. In feminist pedagogy, women analyze their situation, look into the injustices and inequalities and seek to transform the structures and systems that perpetuate women’s oppression.

While other members argued that Praxis too, can be applied in formal education, most affirmed that with feminist pedagogy, there is no single theory. This translates to the different ways of learning and the different sources of knowledge for women. While there could be informed action in formal education, still, informal education emphasizes the knowledge, experiences and capacities of the oppressed – who are the poor communities who do not have access to, or are marginalized in formal education. “Freiran” feminist pedagogy is transformative, hence the question, praxis for whom? – should be on the side of the oppressed towards their liberation, which in the process liberates the oppressors as well.

Democratic space: Space for freedom and emancipation

The class noted that in informal Freiran feminist pedagogy, there is democratic space where women do not have fear – of authority, and of saying the “wrong” things. This goes further to women’s subordination and with women being viewed as emotional and irrational – which has no room in male-oriented, objective formal education.

In Freiran feminist pedagogy, the relationship between women and the teachers is non-hierarchical, recognizing women’s, as students, view of the world and wisdom from their experiences. Education serves as a space for freedom – where women can find their emancipation from learning, unlearning and re-learning their realities.

Recreating stories of Oppression and Setting the terrain for liberation

Freiran feminist pedagogy lets women recreate their stories of oppression. Here, women look into the sources of their oppression and find ways to free themselves from the hold of their oppressors. While the end of their struggle also liberates their oppressors, women are able to own their liberation, critically conscious not to become oppressors themselves.

In liberatory feminist pedagogy, women are able to realize that they can transform their oppressed realities. As Freire noted:

 

In order for the oppressed to be able to wage the struggle for their liberation, they must perceive the reality of oppression not as a closed world from which there is no exit, but as a limiting situation which they can transform. (p.49)

 

Women are hence given the space to create new imaginings, new visions of their world – a transformed world, that sets the terrain for their liberation.

Reference:

Freire, Paulo (1984).  Pedagogy of the Oppressed. (Myra Bergman Ramos, Trans.).

New York, NY: Continuum.