Paulo Freire

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

1. IDEA 1

   Education can free or oppress

   Freire, a Brazilian educator who taught literacy to poor adults, argues that education is never neutral. It either helps people accept an unjust world or helps them understand and change it.

2. IDEA 2

   Banking education deposits facts

   Freire criticises the banking model of education, in which teachers deposit information into passive students. He argues it discourages critical thinking. In his view, students are treated as empty containers to be filled, and their own experience is ignored.

3. IDEA 3

   Problem-posing education empowers

   Freire proposes problem-posing education, where teachers and students explore real problems together. Learning becomes active. In his view, students become co-investigators with their teachers and gain a voice, and the class turns into a shared search for understanding.

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