Episode #210 ... The Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Paulo Freire, Education)

We talk about Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. His critique of the banking model of education. The importance of critical consciousness. His Existentialist influence. The dialectic between oppression and liberation. The problem-posing model of education. The role of dialogue in learning and the co-creation of knowledge. Marx's influence on Freire. The flexibility of Freire’s pedagogy. And some responses to critics of Freire.

Thank you so much for listening! Could never do this without your help.

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[sonny]

One of my favourite podcasts! Keep up the fantastic work! Much love from Canada🇨🇦

[luckyblocking]

I read the book just a few months ago! This video was a great complement and refresher to the work! Thanks for covering Freire!

[ThinkRadio]

thank you for highlighting his legacy… Cheers !

[TioOlavoDoBaralho]

Brazilian here. You nailed it, Stephen. “Conscientização” is a process. Breaking down the word in parts:
- conscienti- : comes from consciência = awareness/ conscientiousness. Literally, to be aware of something/ know something together/ collectively, the collective knowledge of something.
- zação : expresses that it’s a process.

So, conscientização would literally be process of becoming aware or knowledgeable of something together.

[UnmaskthisPEP]

This Channel deserves a million subscribers. Thanks for this powerful episode

[tarnaskarnas]

Stephen, your podcasts are incredibly interesting and fun to listen to - I have no idea how you manage to do what you do, I can only bow down and thank you for the work you've put into this so I could greedily consume all of this!:)

[hiwayshoes]

I’m an educator who deeply appreciates Freire’s educational thought, thank you for highlighting his legacy… Cheers 💖!

[caffeineandphilosophy]

Brilliantly argued. With a presentation like this, Stephen West could give an ideological defense of NSDAP and be persuasive.

[bq]

Mate, this was absolutely one of your best lectures. Paulo's work has such far reaching implications - education, personal, health (emotional & mental), relations, politics, etc. I'm trying to translate these themes to critically analyse my own personal/private life.

Your last criticism had me nodding in agreement. From all I had heard from the beginning of your lecture, that last criticism is just so invalid and inappropriate haha.

Thanks.

[lucascorrea]

Im brazilian, from south Brazil, a state colonized mostly by italians and germans, the majority of the state here has shown itself to be mostly right-wing, including most of my family
But I wish I had knowledge of these ideas growing up
My education didn't seem to have Freire's influence, school was in fact very opressive, my classroom was kept in silence and engaged in learning mostly by fear of failure and punishment
My father was also very authoritarian, constantly screaming and forcing me to listen for hours to "moral lectures" where I was punished if I were to, in any way, show my disagreement or dissatisfaction
After my parents divorced, I gladly dropped out of school, and never finished my education
Severe anxiety and other health issues caused by exessive stress
And it became usual to hear of my friends failing health and similar issues (especially the ones who continued their education)
All our lives we were educated to reach quotas and deliver papers, to listen without questioning and to find a clear "right answear" to everything or else be punished
My critical thinking, my questioning of the world and my interest in philosophy and psychology, literature and other languages came after I've dropped out of school
I only learned of Freire afterwards as well, so I wonder how much of the downfall of the educational system is really caused by these ideas, and how much of it is just political fault distribution

[kalinmwilliams]

Great episode. Never commented before but this spoke to me. Cheers.

[natesaar]

Don’t think I ever had a teacher in school that was inspired by anything.

[abbasishehryar]

Just here to like this video for now. Will it watching it lately.

[xbluebells]

Wow I loved this book! Read this in college!!

[Ged-kw]

Pops passed me this book years ago in new it

[BotlheMolelekwa-juse]

Educated person is someone who understands what is being taught to them and able to use such information to manipulate whatever they want for good or bad. And to be able to understand information, they have to have a good thought process system or critical thinking skills to better analyze and make good conclusions based on the information been taught to them. And critical thinking skills aren't taught enough because most people don't have this skill. Especially people i have listened to and seen on the internet. And the most things not taught is that it's fine to be an idiot. Everyone is one. But as long as you improve your critical thinking skills, go and ask people questions about what you want to learn about, then you are less of an idiot or something. How to make these things? Don't know at least for now. I don't have access to people who i can bounce such things

[klosnj]

Oh boy. I suspect I am going to hate this one.

(To self) Okay. Open mind. You can do this. Lets go...

[victormn]

You should absolutely do an episode on Henry George! He is the most forgotten and undervalued political economist and was more popular than Adam Smith in his time.

[RommyAli]

Pleaaaaese make a video to go along with these audio clips!

[quintessenceSL]

I wonder about this as change against entrenched systems tends be much, much longer than a lifetime and for your average Joe, devoting your time to internalizing the consensus view so you can regurgitate signifiers reflexively is the most available path to a good life (you can abuse your own thoughts in private).

There is a double-dealing required oppressed until they reach a critical mass to make change, keeping their personal education distinct from what society demands of them, which honestly is exhausting.