Freirean Paradigms

Freirean notions of Critical Pedagogy provide the consequential validity that is often lacking from decontextualized discussions concerning asymmetries of power in dialectical conversations within a given social reality. In his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire utilizes concepts of Critical Theory to formulate a pedagogical methodology aimed at social reconstruction in which the subordinate culture reexamines and exerts its own power to interrupt the existing power asymmetry.

Freirean paradigms are concerned primarily with the narrative nature of education which he dubs the banking model and its proposed antithesis, the problem-posing paradigm. Freire characterizes the banking model as involving “a narrative Subject (the teacher) and patient, listening objects (students)” (p. 52). The teacher is considered a depositor, knowledge is considered to be that which is deposited, and the student is considered to be the receptacle into which knowledge is deposited by the aforementioned teacher. As Freire articulates the phenomenon, the teacher’s “task is to ‘fill’ the students with the contents of his narration—contents which are detached from reality, disconnected from the totality that engendered them and could give them significance” (p. 52). The student is therefore considered to be a good student if they adopt the passive role of a receptacle.

In opposition to the banking model, Freire believes that “[k]nowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry men pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other” (p. 52). In other words, Freire supports  the experiential learning advocated by Dewey and the anti-positivistic epistemology supported by the Frankfurt School. As such, the form of pedagogy that Freire supports pays very close attention to dialectical relationships between both oppressed and oppressor as well as between human knowledge and social reality. In view of the above, Freire suggests that in the banking model, “knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing” (p. 52). In so being, the banking model is highly supportive of the status quo and often views students as malleable objects that become increasingly more willing to accept what is given to them. As Freire puts it, “[t]he 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” (p. 53). As such, the relationship dynamics designate that the student/oppressed as an outsider or “welfare recipient” and the teacher/oppressor as the insider/patron.

Further, Freire considers the banking model to be necrophilic in that it considers humans to be objects and therefore precludes the idea that they have the capacity to grow in a self-regulated manner. As such, Freire believes that the banking model supports a kind of love for death (p. 55).

Freire supports a view of education that does away with the dichotomous relationship between student and teacher. Freire feels that this can be done by “adopting…a concept of men as conscious beings, and consciousness as consciousness intent upon the world” (p. 56). He further suggests that problem-posing education is an inherently emancipatory endeavor that requires a shift in the dialectical relationship between student and teacher in which there exists a greater share of reciprocity in the communication of learning.

References:

Freire, P. (2009). From pedagogy of the oppressed. In A. Darder, M.P. Baltodano, & R. D. Torres (Eds.), The Critical Pedagogy Reader (pp. 52-60) New York, NY: Routledge.

Critical Pedagogy

Support of social reconstructivism as a practical educational paradigm often engenders the reification of Critical Theory as Critical Pedagogy. With regard to Critical Pedagogy, McLaren (2009) suggests that knowledge is organic and subjective; that is, he believes that knowledge is the product of an ongoing conversation between members of a given society at a given time. McLaren further asserts that “[c]ritical pedagogy asks how and why knowledge gets constructed the way it does, and how and why some constructions of reality are legitimated and celebrated by the dominant culture while others clearly are not” (p. 63).

McLaren delves deeper into the subgroups of knowledge and suggests that emancipatory knowledge is often utilized by critical educators to bring to parity quantifiable knowledge and analytical knowledge and, in so doing, create “the foundation for social justice, equality, and empowerment” (p. 64).

McLaren goes on to point out that Critical Pedagogy is a tool by which educators self-critically analyze modes of thought generation and dominant discourse in an effort to expose power asymmetries and their manifestation in school curricula with particular regard to notions of cultural capital. He suggests that “[s]tudents from the dominant culture inherit substantially different cultural capital than do economically disadvantaged students, and schools generally value and reward those who exhibit that dominant cultural capital” (p. 81). He further explains that students who subscribe to the subordinate class culture often find that the cultural capital that they inherit from such an oppressed culture holds very little value as a social currency within schools that systematically devalue that said cultural capital. As such, in McLaren’s view:

Cultural capital is reflective of material capital and replaces it as a form of symbolic currency that enters into the exchange system of the school. Cultural capital is therefore symbolic of the social structure’s economic force and becomes in itself a productive force in the reproduction of social relations under capitalism. Academic performance represents, therefore, not individual competence or the lack of ability on the part of disadvantaged students but the school’s depreciation of their cultural capital. The end result is that the school’s academic credentials remain indissolubly linked to an unjust system of trading in cultural capital which is eventually transformed into economic capital, as working-class students become less likely to get high-paying jobs. (p. 81)

References:

McLaren, P. (2009). Critical pedagogy: a look at the major concepts. In A. Darder, M.P. Baltodano, & R. D. Torres (Eds.), The Critical Pedagogy Reader (pp. 61-83) New York, NY: Routledge.