Notes from Intro to Pedagogy of the Oppressed

At the Intro to Pedagogy of the Oppressed workshop, participants shared their collective knowledge about Paulo Freire’s ideas and philosophies. We thought about Paulo Freire’s lived experiences that helped crystallize ideas of PO (“I’m not stupid, and neither are you. We are hungry, malnourished, and living in poverty.”) We traced journeys from places we call home today to those of parents and grandparents and then back again, and then explored our current realities and generative themes that arose from those realities to construct a thematic universe of the people in the room.

Here are some of the ideas participants shared!

What we know about PO:

  • The Banking Method of education
  • Critical consciousness (conscientization)
  • Popular education
  • Inquiry-based learning (problem-posing)
  • Praxis (active reflection and reflective action instead of activism and/or verbalism

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What resonated with us about some of his ideas:

  • People become active participants in their own liberation.
  • Dialogue can exist with love and by love for the people.
  • To name the world: ownership of the world.
  • To liberate the oppressed and the oppressor, too.
  • Dialogue: an encounter to name the world. Internal dialogue, making connections.
  • Generative themes: people and their realities with possibilities to change.
  • Dialogue and humility: continual tension, dialetical
  • Education structures deferring the present to the future.
  • Trusting people is essential for revolutionary change.
  • Engaging in dialogue for revolution!

The generative themes we presented:

  • Institutional-isms.
  • Conflict.
  • “Hoodify” — “Walking Black”
  • Dehumanization
  • Struggle
  • No representation
  • Manipulation
  • Consumerism
  • Normalization
  • Fear

Our descriptions of our thematic universe (the universe containing all these themes):

  • Capitalism
  • Dysfunctional
  • The Non-Real
  • Intersectionality
  • F’ed up
  • Risk
  • Fear
  • Division
  • Gloproblems
  • Powerless
  • Anti-Solidarity

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