Book Review

BOOK REVIEW

PEDAGOGY OF HOPE  

Reliving Pedagogy of the Oppressed 

            

Bloomsbury Revelations, London, New York, 2014 Edition 

            

"You are not under arrest. You are our guest, only you may not leave your room. "A few moments later, at the hotel, my room was locked from the outside. Not under arrest. Strange terminology.' It is amusing and bewildering anecdotes such as  this, not to mention Paulo Freire's deep reflections and reminiscences which make his work 'Pedagogy of Hope' well worth reading. It is simply a delight to read. A real gem! 

             

Paulo Freire was one of the world's greatest Adult educators and Philosophers who after tireless effort, study and interacting with peasants, fishermen and the disadvantaged, came up with a new way of teaching illiterate people which not only taught them, but sought to empower their lives so they could break free from all forms of oppression. He developed a pedagogy where the pre- existing knowledge as well as the culture of the students had to be fully respected. He supported open-ended dialogue where students were encouraged to question everything. This was to be an issue -related education done in a humane way which genuinely sought to improve the quality of lives of people.

             

Unfortunately, some people either misunderstood Freire or regarded his views as 'subversive', 'undesirable' and 'a dangerous threat to national security.' Despite successfully teaching 300 farmers to read and write in the space of 45 days in 1962, a military coup in 1964 forced Freire to go into exile and begin a long odyssey as a refugee. His work the Pedagogy of the Oppressed was banned in his native Brazil for 15 years.

             

Freire must be one of the most misunderstood and misconstrued philosophers. Some critics accused him of being a Marxist or of seeking to implement an educational program where he imposed his values on students or worse, brainwashed them. In fact, he simply sought to develop an issue -related education which would encourage people to question and challenge the injustice they saw around them. One of my fellow students at Glasgow University told me : "It is clear that Freire has a genuine love and affection for simple people and went out to mix with them and listen to their problems". Zal Juglar, a musician from Argentina who has visited Moscow many times, told me, "Freire's practice of education is the one form of teaching I support. It really offers people a better way of doing education".

                          

If you want to truly grasp Freire's views on education this book is a good place to start. Freire criticized conventional and traditional education systems where the teacher simply filled the passive minds of students with facts, via rote or by depositing knowledge. He described it as 'a banking education' which often crushed the creativity, curiosity and voice of the student. But a teacher has to love and listen to the student. The student has to be allowed to explore and question everything the teacher offered him. But in this respect Freire thought that some Marxists could be elitist as they treated the poor in a condescending and patronizing way by claiming they had a monopoly of knowledge while the poor were 'ignorant' and had 'false consciousness'. A teacher has to learn and become acquainted with the local culture of the poor even if it seems at odd with the teacher's culture. So in one chapter you hear of teachers coming across a peasant who believed a  talisman could protect him from bullets or special leaves which can cure cancer.

             

At one point Freire states in reference to adult educators like Fox in America that, 'There was a great deal of similarity between what they were doing in New York and what I was doing in Brazil". We learn that the German philosopher Enrich Fromm met Freire in Mexico and told him: "This kind of educational practice is a kind of historical-cultural, political psychoanalysis".

             

Freire also understands that while achievement in learning can bring joy it is often difficult and hard for many people. This axiom applies to not only learning literacy, but in studying foreign languages. This is why he challenges current notions that education should become another form of entertainment. He declares: 'There is no room, in the constitution of this needed discipline, for an identification of the act of studying, of learning, of knowing, of teaching, with pure entertainment-learning as a kind of toy or game, without rules or with lax ones.'{page 73} 

             

Freire comes across as having a way of breaking the ice of the students. In one delightful story you hear how he makes them feel less intimated by his education. He organised a quiz where the students would ask him 10 questions, and he in turn, would ask them 10. The competition ended in a draw because both the teacher and students lacked some knowledge the other had. The aim of the competition was to boost the students' confidence persuading them that they had much invaluable knowledge and skills. It is just they didn't often openly value it or those in authority derided their knowledge.  

             

In this work, Freire has a lot to say about how a teacher must approach his job. In one revealing passage you can read:

            

'The more tolerant, the more open and forthright, the more critical, the more curious and humble they become, the more authentically they take up the practice of teaching. In a like perspective - indisputably progressive , like much postmodern, as I understand post modernity, than modern, let alone "modernizing"- to teach is not simple transmission, wrought by and large through a pure description of the concept of the object, to be memorized by students mechanically ... Teaching someone to learn is only valid - from the view-point let me repeat - when educands learn to learn in learning the reason- for, the "why", of the object of content'. {Page 70, chapter 2.}

             

In one chapter an imprisoned teacher tells a visitor what books he should bring his answers: "I don't need Lenin just now, I need the Bible. I need a better understanding of the peasant's mystical universe. Without that understanding how can I communicate with them? "page 97}

             

In this book we also learn about the pain of exile, and Freire's sadness about how the progressive minister of Grenada was assassinated and how America later invaded the island ending the radical hopes of poor Grenadians. It is also interesting to note that Freire's first experience of racism against him was experienced not in Brazil or Chile, but Chicago. 

             

But I like most of all the amusing incidents when the Brazilian Government issued the exiled Freire's family with a special passport which allowed them to travel from Geneva to Zurich. They issued them with a document valid only for travelling within Switzerland rather than the world. 

             

The good thing about Freire is just how open -minded he is. Whereas some Portuguese radicals told him "Does Paulo Freire know how a group of Catholic women have perverted his ideas in the countryside around Coimbra?" he counters that, on the contrary, they were acting very sensibly in the only way they could in such an oppressive situation and were adopting good tactics. Freire comes across as non sectarian, anti authoritarian and sincerely devoted to his vocation as a teacher.

             

This book represents a refreshing and revitalizing read. It is certainly good medicine for those who feel disenchanted.