Empowering the Oppressed: Freires Pedagogy for Equality and Liberation

Abstract

In most cases, when people feel oppressed, they tend to act on it in revolutions or rebellion. But as Freire suggests, there are other ways of dealing with oppression and categorically tries to give insight on the actual source of oppression or the feeling/notion of being oppressed. Pedagogy of the Oppressed is based on the grounds of how people understand themselves as human beings. It is here that the author talks of oppression being a damaged sense of self and equates liberation with human identity (Freire, 2018). Therefore, the oppressor becomes the enemy to the people trying to find their identity. People are usually not so genuine or ultimately generous in the efforts of helping the oppressed. Only through this realization that only the oppressed can rise and fight their own battles without necessarily relying on external people or factors. According to Freire (2018), the key to redemption is education. ` Apparently, Freire has categorically criticized how education has turned out to be in the essence that it is usually not done in the right manner. The author has insight that, in most cases, students read for other purposes but not necessarily to gain knowledge. In most cases, the outcome is usually detrimental because what is learned in class and the study habits of students are reflected later in the adult lives, which in most cases, is typically negative. The techniques used in schools reflect on the students that students are made to believe that there should be a higher authority than others. In real life, this authority turns out to be the oppressors who are allowed to possess some knowledge not owned by the oppressed. Therefore, through the knowledge possessed by the oppressors used to organize societies best and as far as the oppressors are concerned, the woes of the oppressed are due to their own accord (Freire, 2018). It is, therefore as a result of these oppressions that Freire advocates for pedagogy. Pedagogy, especially in terms of teacher-student relationships, brings equality. Equality in such a setup could only be felt if the teacher becomes the student, and the student becomes the teacher and, in one accord, interact and teach each other. This kind of arrangement would automatically bring equality that would make the student feel the essence of active participation. Active participation, the students would take a more active role in education, which would later translate to them passing that kind of attitude to the outside world. In other words, the system of learning Freire advocates is one that tends to bring harmony, equality, and commonness in all grounds, whereby a peaceful habitation would be possible (Freire, 2018). When this is done, revolts would be unnecessary since there is no one point where...