%% #📓 #📚 #🟠 %% # Pedagogy of the Oppressed **Author:** [[Paulo Freire]] **Citation:** Freire, P. (2000). *Pedagogy of the oppressed.* (M.B. Ramos, Trans.)(30th Anniversary ed.). Continuum. --- # Abstract ~ 3 Sentence Summary Paulo Freire critiques the banking model of education and suggests problem-posing education instead. ## Key Takeaways - Individuals, in dialogue with others, can transform lived experience into knowledge and see world as a reality in the process of transformation. - Liberation can only happen when oppressed recognize and act upon possibility and when oppressors put themselves at same level in solidarity. Can't liberate from oppression by enacting oppression on others. - Humans create reality and are then influenced by reality. - Dehumanizing another is, in itself, dehumanizing. - We all have to work together to liberate all of us. - [[banking model|Banking model]] of education or leadership should be replaced by [[problem-posing model]] - Co-creation of Truth can only happen through dialogue = reflection + action. [[praxis]] > "no one liberates himself by his own efforts alone, neither is he liberated by others" (p. 66) # Notes & Important Ideas ## Connections to Other Materials #### [[How can the oppressed react with a gesture of love]]? If the oppressed are the ones being attacked and held down, physically or otherwise, why and how should they be expected to respond with a [[gesture of love]]? Michelle Obama addressed this very point in her speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention when she said, "When they go low, we go high." ([as cited in Scipioni, 2020](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/12/michelle-obama-on-famous-catchphrase-when-they-go-low-we-go-high.html)) --- #### [[Investigating generative themes requires self-transcendence]] Freire argues that investigating [[generative themes]] to take liberating action requires something that sounds a lot like [[self-transcendence]], which Carey describes in *[[Heraclitean Fire - Carey 1999|Heraclitean Fire]]* as the key to full human growth and increasing connection to the [[authentic self]] (p. 7). --- ## Personal Reflection & Application #### Profound connection to moment in history I found Freire's work to be fascinating and enlightening. Many of the revelations he made seemed at once surprising and obvious. It was particularly profound to be reading this at a moment in history (September 2020) when issues of social justice and political division were so front-of-mind. #### Transcending role as subject matter expert I was drawn to Freire's critique of the traditional banking model of education. This concept was particularly relevant to my role in my organization. At the time, I was serving as a Patient Experience Coordinator and my role was defined as a subject matter expert. In that position, I often struggled with what Freire identified as the teacher-student contradiction. I was conditioned to present myself as an opposite to my 'students' by considering them ignorant and thereby justifying my existence. And the leaders and staff largely "accept their ignorance as justifying the teacher's existence" (p. 72). I worked to redefine my role, not as a subject matter expert, but as a problem-poser. My goal is always to encourage and empower leaders and staff to recognize that they have just as much to teach on the matter. Only by co-investigating and co-authoring our actions together can we hope to transform our organization. # Other References ## Tags