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Here are some modified excerpts on a presentation I gave several years back on Friere:

Brief bio highlights:

Appointed “Director of the Department of Education and Culture of the Social Service” in home state 1946

1962 applied his theories to teach impoverished workers to read and write in 45 days

After military coup, was jailed & then exiled in 1964

1967 Wrote “Education as the Practice of Freedom”

1968 Wrote “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”

After fellowship at Harvard, moved to Switzerland as Education advisor to World Council of Churches (ecumenical organization)

Also advised on education reform in several poor countries

1979 returned to Brazil, joined Worker’s Party

1991 Paulo Friere Institute form to foster “popular education”

Died in 1997

Major postulates of “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”

“Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which argues against the “banking concept of education” in favor of a liberatory, dialogical pedagogy designed to raise individuals’ consciousness of oppression and to in turn transform oppressive social structures through “praxis.” “ (http://mingo.info-science.uiowa.edu/~stevens/critped/freire.htm)

What does this mean?

Education aimed at the lumpenproletariate ( the poorest of the poor).
Note the predominance of postmodern, feminist, anti-racist, post-colonial, & gay issues in education.
Also note that this relies on the existence of a lumpenproletariat - raise their standard of living and you put yourself out of business.

Along with the three R’s, they are to be radicalized through deconstruction of the moneyed power structure (critical pedagogy)
Note how history texts basically emphasize the evil of Columbus (killing millions through pestilence), but promote leftist and marginal historical figures because they are “diverse”. Also note how they will not tolerate any deconstruction of those they promote (they’ll call you a racist).

Students will “discover” their own learning with teacher as facilitator (dialogical pedagogy).
(Influenced such movements as “invented spelling”, teaching of ebonics, investigations in math as opposed to rote learning of multiplication tables, open classroom experiments, etc.) Basically, why Johnny can’t read or add.

Liberation Education - Education as “consciousness-raising” (students encouraged to link personal experiences to social and political trends and knowledge)
The poor’s political education is more important than the “mere” transmission of knowledge and skills.

Strongly influenced by anti-colonial texts such as “The Wretched of the Earth” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wretched_of_the_Earth )
We all know how decolonialization of Africa turned out - Marxist and Muslim dictatorships, and horrors of Nigerian, Somalian, Sudanese, and Zimbabwean politics.

A little glossary of key concepts in Frieran theory:

Alienation - Domination of people by power elites

“Banking” Education - Tabula rasa (the young mind as a blank slate)

Codification - Representation of learner’s situation

Conscientization - Movement toward:

Critical Consciousness - Awareness that challenges the status quo

Empowerment - Result of liberatory education - consensus

Liberatory (Popular) Education - Worldview: Challenge rather than adapt

Participatory Research - Production of knowledge by learners

Philosophical Underpinnings

Liberation Theology - Jesus as Redeemer and liberator of the oppressed
(This is contrary to Catholic doctrine as inciting hatred and violence in the class struggle. (e.g., World Council of Churches funding of violent and Anti-Semetic groups), and focuses on materialism (economic class)

Plato - Socratic Method
But biased toward only questioning capitalism

Rousseau - Child as Active Learner

Dewey - Criticism of the transmission of “mere facts”

Hegelian Phenomenology - examining consciousness’ experience and eliciting the contradictions that come to light (dialectic)

Vygotsky - Zone of Proximal Development

Marx / Lenin - lumpenproletariat as anti-colonial force