Pedagogy Of The Oppressed Summary

In “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” Paulo Freire tells of the complex relationships that contrast narrative versus instructive teachers and compliant versus existentially aware students, in regards to the various methods of instructing and acquiring knowledge. Although this reading is only a particular excerpt from Chapter 2 of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire does an exceptional job by capturing the immense reality of certain educational methods. He explains the “banking” system of teaching, which portrays the teachers as “oppressors” who enforce themselves with an authoritative, commanding position upon the “oppressed” students. By introducing scholars to this “banking” concept of education, the teacher has no regard for the student, inhibiting further questioning and analyses, which only “negates education and knowledge as processes of inquiry.” (Pedagogy) Freire applies negative connotations to help better demonstrate the contents in which these teachers apply towards their students, stressing that this simply is not well defined enough when the time arrives to properly educate the students.

Inequality has been present since the beginning of civilization. Education has played into this since schooling began; only boys were allowed to be educated while the girls would stay at home. Minorities, such as blacks, Latinos, etc. were excluded from receiving an education as well. Although education has progressed since then, it is seen in Ann Ferguson’s Bad Boys, Conley’s Education and Kozol’s Still Separate, Still Unequal that inequality within punishment, funding/resources and tracking, especially amongst minorities, is still present and even promoted in the modern education system.

When Tarek gets detained by the NYPD in the subway station, and Walter tries to intervene on his behalf, Walter is told that all he can do is make a statement in the station. Walter Vale does everything in his power to help Tarek get free. Even though Walter never had any contact with the immigrant population before, he feels very connected to Tarek over the bond that they share in music, and he helps him despite his ethnicity and race. Walter hires a lawyer to try and get Tarek released, and he visits him frequently. When Walter visits Tarek, he sees how the people are discriminated against and even with all his influence, Walter feels powerless in this situation. Walter was a man of privilege living in America and he never experienced the feeling of such powerlessness in a situation before. This feeling of powerlessness makes Walter fight for what he believes in and he tries everything in his power to help Tarek and set him free.

From the beginning of time and around the world, women have been subjected to patriarchal oppression in various forms. From economic hardships such as wage gaps or an inability to own property, to social mores such as submission in marriage and sexual objectification, women are systematically treated as second- class citizens without a voice. African American women have faced these gendered challenges in addition to racial discrimination in the forms of slavery, unfair taxation, red-lining, unequal access to education and derogatory media representation to name a few. “Passing” by Nella Larsen portrays two African American women as main characters who experience racial and gender oppression in various ways. Webster’s Dictionary defines oppression as: the state of being subject to unjust treatment or control, prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control; mental pressure or distress. Larsen’s story delves into social and feminist issues of oppression such as loss of identity, oppressiveness of marriage, women’s independence relating to women’s lack of independence, the importance of marriage in society, how race and class function in society, and how relationships are dictated by race, class, and gender.

This nation has a history of oppressing African Americans, as seen during antebellum slavery and the Jim Crow era, and despite the gains made during the Civil Rights movement, African Americans continue to find themselves under the control of whites. Because students of color have become the prime targets of overly strict policies, generations of African American students have been relegated to an oppressed underclass of people intensely surveilled by law enforcement; suspensions, expulsions, and dropping out directly translate to lower educational attainment and lower socioeconomic status later in life so African Americans are forced into an impoverished underclass that has been created as a means of control.

Chapter 8 of the Johnson text explains the many ways in which dominant groups avoid addressing oppression, and the most prominent strategy employed by the dominant society in relation to schools is “Blaming the Victim.” Finger-pointing and victim-blaming appears to be a favored approach to avoid thinking inwardly about oppression, the particular example Johnson uses is “If blacks were smarter or worked harder or got an education, they’d be okay,” the idea behind this is echoed by many when the topic of achievement gaps arises. People are quick to accuse minority groups of not working as hard, or not being as intelligent as the dominant group instead of discussing in what ways the education system benefits dominant groups and hinder minorities. So in reality, the United States wants schools to reinforce the dominant perspective without complaint. Chapter 7 discusses how subordinate groups are left with the dilemma of needing to raise complaints about the system, or else have their problems remain invisible, but in questioning the system they are met with the avoidant responses outlined in Chapter

There are two related forms of oppression that interact with race and racism. This two forms have several similar ideas and several differences. This forms of oppression are and homophobia and heterosexism. The first form of oppression with race and racism is homophobia.

In Pedagogy of the Oppressed Paulo Freire mentions the teacher-student contradiction. The contradiction is when students are controlled by teachers. The teachers have the authority over the students, which puts the students in a position that lacks freedom to experience their identity as humans. This contradiction exists due to the banking concept of education. Freire states that the banking concept encourages the contradiction between teachers and students. The banking concept rejects students as individuals and sees them as objects. As a result of the rejection as individuals, students are unable to speak or act upon their own

As a Turk, I view the veil as a symbol of oppression and male dominance; as a Spaniard, the veil is a beautiful accessory worn by passionate female flamenco dancers to emphasize character. When I was asked to cover myself with a burqa at the Sultanahmet Mosque in Istanbul, my home city, I sensed a growing uneasiness as a hot-blooded Spaniard in Istanbul’s most respected location. Clearly displaced, I felt as if I was insulting my Spanish family by ultimately succumbing to authority and hiding my body. I offended the confident spirit of the flamenco dancers that I so admire. In the mosque, I felt entirely Spanish as I came to understand my place as a knot between the Middle Eastern and Spanish sides of my family.

Freire states in his book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, that only the oppressed can save themselves and the oppressors from oppression and that liberation must come within the oppressed. This liberation is the development of critical consciousness and the thinking process in the individual. This comes to a surprise for me because this novel was first published in 1968 that is close to 50 years of knowing a way to stop oppression in society or find a way for the oppressed to have more freedom. Freire states that freedom is achieved through conquest and pursued constantly and responsibly. To me, this means that those oppressed reach freedoms by reminding society of their presence without yelling because no one listens to anyone if there is yelling involved, they listen

- Pedagogy of the oppressed is a book written by Paulo Freire which proposes a pedagogy with a new relationship between teacher, student, and society. At first, Freire explores how oppression has been justified through history and how it began to dehumanize people because of the constant struggle between the oppressor and the oppressed. The oppressor wants to maintain his position but also understand the position of the oppressed, some of the oppressor class feel genuine compassion toward the suffering of the oppressed. They move to isolate that suffering and to aid it, not to address the structures of society which are the root causes.

And the students, who lack knowledge and skills, do depend heavily on their teachers for their quality education and training; thus, feel indebted to respond strictly to their teacher’s imposed acceptable educational standards (oppressed). This educational system only reveals its weakness to truly provide students real knowledge and learning, as it only impedes their ability to discover for themselves an exceptional beauty and meaning to what they can do as unique individuals of dynamic skills needing to be developed and enhanced through a meaningful practice in education. Moreover, education should serve as a wellspring of knowledge and understanding that provides students utmost freedom and empowering to broaden their perspective to see beyond what eyes could not see to create possibilities out of impossibilities to make a better world for

Reading Notes #1 Chapter 1: Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed Humanization and Dehumanization Humanization - Qualities making us human • Freedom, integrity, and understanding • Thoughts/Questions: Should we show these qualities to only others? • Thoughts/Questions: Or should we show these qualities to others and ourselves? • Recognizing humanization must mean to also recognize dehumanization.

The original Social Contract tradition has had many authors, but for the purposes of this paper I will focus on John Locke’s work as one political system that might be used by a nation and the problems it entails that would have to be discussed for modern uses. Locke begins by describing a state of nature that entails equality and a state of perfect freedom for mankind to live as they want within the laws of nature (Locke 2009, 370). Locke’s work argues for his view of property, where a man has the right to the fruits of his labor but not to another man’s (Locke 2009, 372). In his view, the government is meant to prevent on man from seeking punishment that is unfit for the committed crime and that people join together for protection for themselves and their property (Locke 2009, 371-372). He argues also that no one man should be in charge and that a democracy should be used instead (Locke 2009, 371).

Burma, like many other Southeast Asian nations, is a land of much culture and diversity of ethnic groups. Unfortunately, unlike the people of other nations, the people of Burma have been stripped of their human rights. Since the military junta had overtaken the Burmese government in 1988, the people of Burma have been among the most oppressed people in the world. The continuation of the government’s brutality has caught the attention of many outside nations around the world who increasingly have been intervening in Burma’s issues to help its people. As these occurrences are a major issue for the people of Burma, these problems are not restricted to its boundaries. They are also becoming a problem for