Revolutionary Education!!!

FYI. This blog was originally created for one of my grad classes at SJU, so pardon some of the educational jargon. I know it may be a tough read, but trust me it will be worth it. This particular blog may take a bit longer to get through, but don't trip out. Most of you are wasting time at work while reading this anyway, so what’s a couple extra minute to help create LIBERATION EDUCATION? I am writing the education platform for a city council candidate in Queens, NY. If anyone has any applicable ideas that will help establish a Liberation Education in Queens NY and elsewhere, PLEASE holla back? We can change the world through dialogue; being connected is one of the best things that could have happened in our struggle for humanity. Please contribute to the education platform that can and will change the face of education. Please post this in every forum, e mail this info to everyone your contacts, call and text everyone you know and spread the word to as many people as possible. We have an opportunity in Queens, NY to set the pace for the new face of education in our community. If any of you have any questions, e mail me or leave a comment!!! Your input will be invaluable.

Pedagogy is defined differently by different educational philosophies and opinions. Pedagogy is defined by Webster Dictionary as the art, science, or profession of teaching, especially education. Pedagogy has also been defined as “the broader and more generalized notion of social education which arises from the influence of the educative society where we are educating through using community influence.”[1] The term pedagogy in this text is a collective definition but most specifically defined as a “deliberate attempt to influence how and what knowledge and identities are produced within and among particular sets of social relations.”[2] Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed explores the dynamic of education as it relates to the oppressed sectors of the world. Freire text focuses on how the oppressed will free themselves and the oppressor from a repressive society through a critical pedagogy. Critical pedagogy is an academic discipline which involves the critical study of education as it relates to human liberation. The goal for pedagogy as it relates to the oppressed is to restore lost humanity and thereby liberate both the oppressed and the oppressor. The philosophy of freeing the oppressed through a liberated education has implications that continue to resound today. An in depth study and proper implementation of Freire pedagogy, along with others revolutionary educators, is necessary to truly liberate humanity.

Many classrooms across America and the world are occupied with students who fit the characteristics of the oppressed as defined by Freire. It is the responsibility of the “humanist, revolutionary educator”[3] to implement the strategies of Freire (and others) in order to ensure a liberated future. Freire states that the praxis, the proper equilibrium between theory and action, the balance between reflection and active attempts at transforming our world, is a necessary component for true liberation through education. It is the duty of the educator to do away with the concept of Banking Model of education[4], the current form of education, and implement what Freire defines as Problem Poising Dialogue. The teaching implication of this process is revolutionary, but also necessary for both the oppressor and oppressed to truly be liberated.

Freire states that oppression consists of any act which results in hindrances upon individuals (the 'oppressed') to articulate and pursue their own dreams. Freire's goes on to state that:
"Any situation in which 'A' objectively exploits 'B' or hinders his and her pursuit of self-affirmation as a responsible person is one of oppression. Such a situation in itself constitutes violence even when sweetened by false generosity; because it interferes with the individual's ontological and historical vocation to be more fully human.”[5]

The exploitation of ‘A’ by ‘B’ is clearly displayed, historically, in the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. Freire understands the parasitic colonial relationship and his opinions are reflected in his extension of the educational philosophy of Franz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth. Freire expounds upon Fanon’s ideology that emphasized the need to provide native populations with an education which is simultaneously new and modern (rather than traditional) and anti-colonial (not simply an extension of the culture of the colonizer)[6] Freire writes that the colonized had become mere vestiges of their living history, serving as “hosts” for Westernized values, dispirited by an internalized sense of inferiority, dehumanized by regimes of dismissive exteriority. “Freedom,” he wrote, “is acquired by conquest, not by gift. [7]

Freire writes from a Marxist position, but often not exclusively, fails to realize that the parasitic relationship between the colonized and the colonizer will exist regardless of political economic philosophy. The economic system of capitalism allows the factors of production: land labor and capital, to be owned privately[8]. Socialism allows for the factors of production to be owned publicly[9]. Both Adam Smith’s explanation of capitalism in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations and Karl Marx idea of socialism articulated in the Communist Manifesto are rooted in the oppressive systems of colonialism and imperialism.[10]

Capitalism and socialism are economically rooted in what Marx classifies as primitive accumulation or original accumulation and Smith defines as previous accumulation. Regardless of the political economic affiliation, both systems acknowledge the fact that the economic base for their system is found in the oppression of laborors and the exploitation of resources of an external starting point.[11] Neither capitalism nor socialism could exist in Europe without an accumulation of starting wealth. In fact an accumulation of wealth was mandatory in Europe for either capitalism or socialism to exist in the reality of which Smith and Marx wrote their text. Consequently, a relationship of oppressor and oppressed, colonizer and colonized, had to be established, from a European (Western) point of view, in order for the systems of capitalism and/or socialism to be viable political economic ideas in the: political, social, and economic conditions of Europe. It is of no consequence if that accumulation of wealth is reflected in the exploitation of labor or the theft of resources from other places, the result will be the existence of an oppressor and oppressed. The relationship of oppressor and oppressed is established worldwide through the system of colonialism and then imperialism.

In order for any political economic system, based in an oppressor and oppressed relationship, to maintain itself, intuitions must be created to support the relationship created by the system. Freire argues that the education system is designed to support an oppressive social, economic, and political system. Freire describes an educational practice called the Banking System, which is the primaray facilitator of the maintainance of the oppressive relationship. The Banking System of education isolates the learner from the content and process of education. It assumes that the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing. The teacher narrates, prescribes and deposits information which the student then must mechanically receive, memorize and repeat. This transfer of information becomes a symbol and an instrument of oppression that reduces inquiry, creativity and dialogue[12]. Freire makes it clear Banking Education dichotomizes consciousness and the world, thereby domesticating reality. While the teacher acts as bearer of all knowledge, this static and naturalistic conception of consciousness "...transforms students into receiving objects."[13] Consequently, the students are integrated into the world of the oppressor, a world that is based on the dehumanization[14] of the oppressed.

Freire argues that the Banking System does not acknowledge the prior learning experience of students and also treats the world as a static, fixed environment to which students simply need to adapt.[15] This reality supports the continuation of the status quo, where the oppressor is on top and the oppressed is on the bottom. Freire writes:

“Oppression is necrophilic; it is nourished by the love of death, not life. The banking concept of education, which servers the interest of oppression, is also necrophilic. Based on a mechanistic, static, naturalistic, spatialized view of consciousness, it transforms students into receiving objects. It attempts to control thinking and action, leads women and men to adjust to the world, and inhibits their creative power.[16]"

Freire continues to write, that in order to develop an education dedicated to a liberated future, the revolutionary teacher, must adopt a new form of education. Freire writes,

"From the outset, his efforts (the revolutionary educator) must coincide with those of the students to engage in critical thinking and the quest for mutual humanization. His efforts must be imbued with a profound trust in men and their creative power. To achieve this, he must be a partner of the students in his relations with them.[17]”

Freire proposes a different form of education he coins as Problem Poising Dialogue. Problem Poising Dialogue is Freire's answer to the Banking System Model of education. Problem Poising Dialogue is a pedagogical approach of question-posing and dialoguing. This system of education is based on ancient methods of education often accredited to the Socrates, but originally finds its beginning in the educational facilities of African antiquity.[18] Evidence of this is found in an article title “Pedagogy of Ancient Africa” when Asa Hillard III writes that: “In order to explain the culture and particularly the education system of Egypt, we must appeal to the manifestations of the core African culture, not only in the Egyptian part of the Diaspora, but in the rest of continental Diaspora, and later the intercontinental Diaspora.[19] Such an progressive approach to education includes requires the teacher/learner to:

a) Acknowledge and make use of learner's prior knowledge/experience

b) Allow for a more open-ended curriculum that is co-created within the classroom

c) Acknowledge the learning that goes on by all involved-the teachers/facilitators in
addition to students.[20]

Freire believes that the Problem Poising Dialogue form of education is crucial to the true liberation of the oppressed from the oppressor.

Freire encourages students to adopt a curious, questioning, probing stance in exploring educational issues. Freirean education demands a deep commitment to the goal of building a better social world, and requires active resistance against oppressive structures, ideas, and practices. Freire’s challenge to educators has had a profound and resounding affect. In a sense he is challenging educators and students a like, to disregard their position, in order to create the learning environment necessary for liberation. This concept is radical, yet provides the bases for an education system that will produce a world where the balance of power is level and where everyone will have the opportunity to “purse their own dreams”, without a system designed to ensure that those dreams do not come into fruition.

The implication of Freire’s Problem Posing education presents itself in the ideology of conscientization (conscientizacao in the original Portuguese). The goal of liberation education is judged by dialectical relationship, namely that of the world and human consciousness. The concept of conscientization or critical awareness is the foundation to Freire's critical pedagogy[21]. Critical awareness is made possible through praxis which Freire defines as "...reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it"[22].

Freire connects reflection and action (praxis) together, as part of the process in the recognition and transformation of social, economic and political contradictions through a liberation education. Liberation education is designed to interrupt then transform the reality in which the oppressed finds oneself. Freire’s, politically-motivated literacy work served as a "profound learning process" that became the foundation for the formulation of his critical pedagogy of conscientization.[23]

Conscientization is the process whereby individuals develop a greater ability to think critically. The fostering of this critical consciousness, the ability to read one's world more deeply and to ask meaningful 'why' questions, is at the center of Freire's theory of education for human liberation. Freire developed several famous methods for achieving conscientization beside Problem-Posing Dialogue. Codifications, and Generative Themes are two other strategies Freire developed in order to facilitate liberation education[24].

A. Codifications- A codification or code is simply a visual representation of one thing for another. Freire famously used these codes in Brazil-most famously, drawing them with rural peasants in the dirt with a stick--as a way of developing not only literacy but also political consciousness.

B. Generative Themes- generative theme is a single word or phrase that Freire would famously use to start problem-posing dialogue as part of his critical literacy method. Freire would choose a theme very relevant to the people to the lives of the people with whom he was working. For example, he would start with the word 'shovel' if he was working with miners. This theme would be the first word learned within the 'lesson' and be the launching off point for various questions concerning the implications of the theme within the community. Thus, these themes were developed so as to develop ownership among the learners not only of the words themselves but also the political situation surrounding them. [25]

The concept of conscientization is crucial to the revolutionary development and of the current school system. The concept if conscientization is most critical in schools where the population fit the characteristics of the oppressed as defined by Freire. In America the characteristics of the oppressed are most easily revealed in the race and class of certain sectors of American society. This phenomenon of oppressor and oppressed creates the fundamental break down in education along racial and class lines. The class lines were created by the racial lines of which colonialism and imperialism were drawn[26]. Countries where resources and market were available for the expansion of industrialization were generally nations of color.[27] This phenomenon, consequently forced the imperialistic goals of Europe, America, and others to vest itself in the creation of an oppressor and oppressed, colonizer and colonized relationship along the lines of race. Therefore, it should not be a question why many of the schools where the level of educational delinquency is at it highest are inside of schools where the racial and/or class sub group of America has been subjected to the role of the “oppressed”.

Following Freire’s argument one could conclude that it is by design that many of America’s schools are purposely forced into objectivity, hidden inside to confines of “democracy”, in order to maintain the hierarchy of society. Often the poor conditions of majority Black, Latino, and/or poor schools are blamed on parent involvement, poverty, or some other subjective reality. These reasons may be true to a degree, but none of those reasons supersede the base of the educational contradiction America finds itself. The base of the contradiction is that the oppressor, those that benefit from the oppressed being the oppressed, need the system to maintain itself. The oppressor needs the system to maintain itself, at the expense of the oppressed, in order for the oppressor to continue to hold his position in the world and most specifically America. It is the intent of the oppressor to continue the system as it exists, in order not to threaten his livelihood.

Friere goes on to argue that the oppressor’s maintenance of this oppressive system is also harming the oppressor as well. Freire writes:

“As the oppressor dehumanize others and violate their rights (the oppressed), they themselves also become dehumanized. As the oppressed, fighting to be human, take away the oppressors power to dominate and suppress, they restore to the oppressor the humanity they had lost in the exercise of oppression.[28]”

Consequently, the oppressed are not engaging in conscientization, by way of liberation education, in order to switch places with the oppressor. The oppressed engage in conscientization in order to liberate all of humanity from the physical and mental shackles of oppression.

It is the responsibility of revolutionary educators to help develop this process to its revolutionary end. Problem-posing education, says Freire, is

"Revolutionary futurity…affirms men as beings who transcend themselves, who move forward and look ahead, for whom immobility represents a fatal threat, for whom looking at the past must only be a means of understanding more clearly what and who they are so that they can more wisely build the future.[29]"

The act of gaining an understanding of the world around oneself, critically analyzing the situation, conscientization, is only possible in conjunction with dialogue. Freire insists that dialogue is essential to the resolution of the teacher-student contradiction. Through dialogue and communication, students assume responsibility for their own learning process and thus become "...critical co-investigators in dialogue with the teacher". Furthermore, Freire asserts that dialogue is an essential component to the process of conscientization. Freire highlights the potential of dialogue and defends the power of language as a tool that is capable of cultivating dominance or freedom, oppression or liberation, colonialism/imperialism or self determination. Dialogue allows people to name the world and, therefore, to force social transformation and liberation through revolution. Freire's writes: "To exist, humanly, is to name the world, to change it".[30]
Teachers dedicated to truly educating their student, and also dedicated to being lifelong learners will find ways to effectively implement the strategy of liberation education. They will believe and truly internalize the reality that everyone is connected to saving humanity from an oppressive relationship. The collective, both oppressed and oppressor will change the dynamic in which they exist, through true generosity[31] (on behalf of the oppressor) and a self determining spirit (on behalf of the oppressed). Revolutionary educators must be careful not to replace the “oppressors” world view for their own, by simply using the same methods as the oppressor to facilitate its world view. Revolutionary education must transcend the current tyrannical relationship for a solution that makes sense for all of humanity. Freire contributes to this reality, but does not complete it in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, or any of his other text. Freire outlines his premise and then presents in an academic format for the implementation of his educational philosophy. Freire understood that his work in conjunction with other progressive ideas will ultimately liberate those that have been most adversely affected by the current world system.

Dialogue is the first
Step toward liberation,

Marvo

[1] Karl Mannhein and W.A.C Stewart. An Introduction to Sociology of Education. (Lodon: Routlede and Kegen Paul, 1964) p.20
[2] H. Giroux and R Simon, “Popular Culture and Critical Pedagogy: Everyday Life as a Basis for Curriculum Kwoledge” in H Giroux and P. McLarens, eds. Critical Pedagogy, The State, and Cultural Struggle New York SUNY, 1989 p. 239
[3] Paulo Freire. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. (New York: Continuum, 2007), p. 75
[4] Banking Education will be discussed further in the body of the paper
[5] Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. (New York: Continuum, 2007), p. 55
[6] Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth. Trans. Constance Farington. (New York: Grove Press. 1961, reprint ed. 1986)
[7] Ibid, p 52
[8] Adam Smith, An Inquiry in into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (London: W Strahan, and T cadell) [1] B.I, Ch.6, Of the Component Parts of the Price of Commodities in paragraph I.6.9.
[9] Ibid
[10] Omali Yeshitela. The Dialectics of Black Revolution: The Struggle to Defeat the Counterinsurgency in the U.S .(St. Petersburg: Burning Spears Uhuru Publications, 1997) p. 4
[11] Ibid. p 7
[12] E.W Eisner, From Episteme to Phronesis to Artistry in the Study and Improvement of Teaching and Teacher Education, 18 2002 p375-385
[13] Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. (New York: Continuum, 2007)
[14] This concept is borrowed from existentialism (a self-determining agent responsible for the authenticity of his or her choices) of Jean-Paul Sartre. It refers to an act that causes one (literally) to become less human. Dehumanization, in other words, is any act that physically or mentally injures human beings, turns them into objects, or in any other process that puts obstacles in people's path as they attempt to articulate and pursue their own dreams.
[15] Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. (New York: Continuum, 2007), p 73
[16] Ibid, p 77
[17] Ibid, p 75
[18] George GM James, Stolen Legacy: Greek Philosophy is Stolen Egyptian Philosophy. (Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 1992).
[19] Hilliard, Asa G. "Pedagogy in Ancient Kemet." Kemet and the African Worldview: Research, Rescue and Restoration. Edited by Maulana Karenga and Jacob H. Carruthers. Los Angeles: University of Sankore Press, 1986: 131-50.
[20] http://www.ukzn.ac.za/cae/pfi/fd.htm#Critical (accessed 4/13/2008).
[21] Rich Gibson, The Frozen Dialectics of Paulo Freire, in NeoLiberalism and Education Reform, (Hampton Press, 2006.)
[22]Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. (New York: Continuum, 2007), p 36
[23] Ibid, p.41
[24] http://www.ukzn.ac.za/cae/pfi/fd.htm#Critical (accessed 4/13/2008).
[25] Ibid
[26] Omali Yeshitela. The Dialectics of Black Revolution: The Struggle to Defeat the Counterinsurgency in the U.S .(St. Petersburg: Burning Spears Uhuru Publications, 1997)
[27] Ibid
[28] , p 32
[29] Ibid, p 72
[30] Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. (New York: Continuum, 2007), p 76
[31] True generosity consists of an act of sacrifice on behalf of the oppressor which attempts to free the oppressed from their condition. Such an act consists not of a temporary, meaningless 'hand-out' meant to sooth the conscience of the oppressor but instead a conscious effort to work alongside the oppressed in order to reduce their dependence and allow them to take up work that transforms the social conditions of this world.