The Oppressed

Paulo Freire’s Book Pedagogy of the Oppressed talks about the oppressed and the oppressors. It discusses how they oppress, why, and what you can do to get out of being oppressed. Upon reading this book I found a concept that really stood out to me and reminded me of a time in junior high. The concept was banking education. In Chapter 2 of Pedagogy of the Oppressed he states: In the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon…

The Phenomenon of the Oppressed becoming the Oppressor The dilemma and correlation to indigenous people and ethnic conflict as they struggle to survive and thrive in a world that consistently try to strip them of their dignity and humanity. He retorted, “Am I My Brother’s Keepers?” rings loud and clear in my ears and in the deepest part of my consciousness as I study and reflect on the Palestinian and Israeli conflict. This was the response given by Cain to God when asked, “Where is your…

“Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor.” (Freire 1) Utilizing a metaphor, Freire critiques the traditional education system in his literary work the Pedagogy of the Oppressed by comparing students to empty containers in which teacher’s deposit knowledge. Freire’s writing throughout his work exposes how the traditional education must transform in order to eliminate the negatives that stem as a result of the system.…

say that it is absolutely necessary now, but the 60’s when Baraka was saying these things it was not quite as radical. This piece was interesting to read for a number of reasons, but particularly because it provided a window into the life of an oppressed African-American in the 60’s. In all honesty, I grew up in Urbandale, Iowa in a predominantly caucasian school, where I, as a caucasian male experienced almost no racism. Therefore, it was concerning for me to hear about a concept that would…

teaching them. In reality education is so much more than a lecture from the teacher to the student because education is constantly being developed throughout a person’s everyday life. Two stories, “Allegory of the Cave” by Plato and “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” by Paulo Freire have two very different views on what the best method of education looks like. When comparing the two it is evident that the “problem-posing” method is better way to teach because it involves the students and allows them to…

Paulo Freire discussed the teacher-student contradiction in the text of “Pedagogy of the Oppressed.” This contradiction is when students are regulated by teachers. The teachers have the power over the students, which places them in a situation that limits their freedom as a whole. The Banking Concept of Education is the reason for the lack of freedom for students. This concept contradicts students as objects, and not individuals. Assuming that the students know nothing, Freire stated that the…

Chain Mejia To what extent are disabled individuals oppressed in society Disabled individuals face innumerable difficulties that affect their daily lives. Many of them are denied job opportunities’ simply because of physical aspects or mental conditions that cannot be controlled. As a result of being rejected by employers, disabled individuals turn to the government for financial assistance such as Social security checks, housing and food assistance. According to the article…

which result in dehumanizing the oppressed (Freire, 2000, p. 28). If an act prevents people from becoming more fully human, is classified as a form of oppression (Freire, 2000, p. 42). Those who have been oppressed have a skewed perception of themselves as being oppressed because they have been so submerged in the reality of oppression it has become unrecognizable to their own eye (Freire, 2000, p. 30). During these forms of oppression, of which dehumanizes the oppressed, but also shows the…

By shifting the perception of oppression from an objective reality to a limiting situation which can be transformed, the oppressed can realize what needs to be transformed in order to break free from the oppressive system. Similarly to the process of realization for the oppressed, the oppressor can find solidarity by regarding the oppressed as people who have been facing oppression and not as mere means to their ends. After this realization, the oppressor must do something tangible and not…

In the face of colonialism, the oppressed and the oppressor seem to stand on opposite ends of the spectrum, and the oppressed party is often viewed as being only positively affected by colonization. However, in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire challenges the more parochial view of the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed, arguing that while the oppressed are beaten down by whatever system of oppression they were forced to participate in, the oppressors are affected as…