Paulo Freire was a Brazilian educator who advocated for problem-posing education to liberate oppressed students. According to Freire, the traditional "banking concept" of education treats students as empty vessels to be filled by the teacher. Instead, he argued for dialogue between teachers and students so that they can jointly generate knowledge. Freire believed this approach would help students develop critical thinking skills to see problems in the world and work to transform it, rather than merely accept oppression. His influential ideas challenged traditional power dynamics in education and called for reforms emphasizing student agency, inquiry, and social justice.

1. Paulo Freire
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
“There is in fact, no teaching without learning.
One requires the other.”

2. Who is Paulo Freire?
“The teacher is no longer
merely the-one-who-teaches,
but one who is him/herself
taught in dialogue with
students, who in turn while
being taught also teach. They
become jointly responsible
for a process for which all
grow.”
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR BIO

3. Oppression
 “In order for this struggle to have meaning, the oppressed must not, in seeking
to regain their humanity (which is a way to create it), become in turn
oppressors of the oppressors, but rather restorers of the humanity of both.”
Oppression knows no boundaries.
Can we reform our educational
system if it’s based on oppression?
Click If we all want a better educational
and watch system, why is reforming education
this clip so difficult?
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4. The Banking Concept of Education
 Education is an act of depositing.
 The teacher makes the deposit and the students are
the depositories.
 Students are limited to receiving, filing and storing
information.
Does our curriculum reflect an act of depositing?
How does our testing culture relate to this concept?

5. Say It Isn’t So
 “The capability of banking education to minimize or annul the
students’ creative power and to stimulate their credulity serves the
interests of the oppressors, who care neither to have the world
revealed nor to see it transformed.”
 Freire believed that “problem-posing” education would liberate
oppressed students by emphasizing critical thinking
 Do our schools emphasize critical thinking?
 Does it depend on the school?

6. Re-Envisioning Freire’s “Banking
Concept of Education”
Stop and think…
Do you agree with Freire’s concepts of education?
What would James Gee have to say to Paulo Freire?
~Read this article~

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7. Process of Inquiry
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 “Any situation in which some individuals prevent others from
engaging in the process of inquiry is one of violence. The
means used are not important; to alienate human beings
from their own decision-making is to change them into
objects.”
 Do our classrooms encourage the process of inquiry?
 How would you apply this process in your class?

8. Freire Himself
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If you could have a
conversation with
Freire, what would
you want to ask him
about educational
reform?

9. Critical Pedagogy
Henry Giroux is one of the founding theorists of critical pedagogy – his work draws
from Paulo Freire.
“Today, in the age of standardized
testing, thinking and acting, reason and
judgment have been thrown out the
window just as teachers are
increasingly being deskilled and forced
Click on photo to act as semi-robotic technicians good
for little more than teaching for the
test...”

10. Freire As Your School’s Superintendent?
Take a minute and think about his concepts…
Can you imagine what a school would like if Freire was superintendent?
If you’re done imagining read this
Ok now would you want him as the superintendent?
Why or why not?

11. Are We In Need of a
Revolution?!
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12. A Critical View of Freire
 Please read this

13. Are We Teachers or Educators ?
 On a final note take a look at THIS
 “I teach because I search, because I question, and
because I submit myself to questioning”
 “To teach is not to transfer knowledge but to create
the possibilities for the production or construction of
knowledge.”

14. References

15. References Continued