Pedagogy of the Oppressed Chapter 3 Reaction

Pedagogy of the Oppressed—Paulo Freire

© 2011

Translation by Myra Bergman Ramos

Chapter 3

Reaction

            Dialogue is a crucial form of communication. The words we choose to convey information or feelings or ideas are just as important as how we get those words to another. As I read Freire, I find that his position makes so much sense.  What his writing makes me think about is the listening or receiving part of communication. These days we seem to get so caught up in the words being spoken or the manner in which they are delivered, and we overlook the receivers’ process of interpreting those exact words. 

Freire states, “If it is in speaking their word that people, by naming the world, transform it, dialogue imposes itself as the way by which they achieve significance as human beings” (p.88), and it makes me think about the reciprocal side of the communication—the person or people for which the message was intended.  It seems as though the receiver of spoken (or written) dialogue is not as prevalent in Freire’s position as it should be.  Perhaps he is assuming that dialogue intrinsically allows for a receiver, yet it seems that the role of receiver is not as responsible for the transformation of the human condition as a speaker’s role might be.

I do agree—always have—with Freire in that we cannot “deposit” information to students.  We (educators) must explore the what and the why of lessons to be taught and how students will access learning.  I have always questioned the seeming rational of “the students need to fit or meet the curriculum”.  My big question has been “why can’t the curriculum be written to fit the needs of the students”?  We work with humans and on any given day, at any given time, they are going to react and process information in ways educators cannot predict.  Curriculum details can and should be dynamic to address the needs of both the students and the teachers.

In reading chapter three, I did appreciate how Freire provided a detailed example of how an educational program could be set up based on his position on oppression.  For my learning and understanding, it helped to have a step-by-step process outlined.  However, reflecting on what he did present, I had a few thoughts:  one thought was that this process would be incredibly difficult to replicate in our country. It would take a major paradigm shift at all levels of education, politics, and society to even accept that there is oppression, let alone a strategy to overcome it.

And the more I read, the more I realize that Freire spirals around his position, restating and reasserting points.  In his position on dialogue and that any generative words or themes need to come from language of the people who are the “learners”, Freire, it seems, does not ascribe to his own argument.  If he truly was trying to inform educators, his language and points need to be presented in a manner assessable by his audience. The writing seems erudite and possibly beyond the reach of the ones who can support his position the most.