Problem Posing Education: The Pedagogy Of The Oppressed By Paulo Friere

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Paulo Friere, one of the most influential and progressive thinkers during the 1900’s, states in his book the, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, that the current education system is being taught as a single narrative, which causes students to become “lifeless and terrified” (Friere 71). The narrative that Friere describes is one in which students are instructed based on the teachers wants, without the consultation of the students. For Friere, this structure teaches that reality is separate from students and is something to be taught and not experienced. In response to the limitations of the “single narrative” structure described by Friere, a liberation movement of problem-posing education has become the new ideal. In the problem-posing model, the goal is for students to experience the practice of freedom in their …show more content…

Furthermore, by allowing students the ability to take control of their education and decide what they want to learn and how they want to learn it, the shift from receptacle to contributing member of society can be made. The ideal classroom would focus on the students needs, and developments, not primarily on what the teacher wants to teach. When a teacher approaches a learning environment, they are doing so from a singular perspective, which does not take into account the diverse student body they are supposedly appealing to. This means that the teacher talks while the students listen and the teacher knows everything while the students know nothing (73). Working under these conditions means that a teacher never gets to view their students as people because the continuous stream of information to students turns them into receptacles, and the more information they retain, the better the receptacles they are (72). Students will never be equal so long as the learning environment takes away a students humanity. But, in reality the teacher needs the students, just as the

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