Book Review: Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire (Continuum Books)

There are only a few areas of development that are considered absolutes and included in every nation’s plan for growth and prosperity. Education is certainly one of them. Yet, the concept of what it means to “educate” someone is rarely examined. Perhaps, like the term “development”, education simply is too broad, too sticky, too loaded a topic for anything less than a deep philosophical tome. Paulo Freire’s seminal work Pedagogy of the Oppressed attempts to drive to the heart of the issue. By dissecting the relationship among teachers, learners, and the subject of study (or what educators call “pedagogy”), Freire illustrates the potential of education to be either oppressive or liberating. Simultaneously, he demonstrates the social and political relevance of pedagogy by relating the product of the learning process to the function of society. The text aims to address the nuance of the issue in serious tones that place the educational process as the keystone of the development process and humanity’s drive toward whatever social ideal it is pursuing.

As an educator and a citizen of our global society, there is neither an author nor a book that has influenced me more than Pedagogy of the Oppressed. It is a brief but thick text that requires thorough chewing to be digested. While many will read it and find themselves in disagreement with Freire’s core assertions, no one will read it without having provoked deep and relevant thoughts about our society and our role as actors within it. It is a rare human who lives their life without serving as both a learner and a teacher in at least an informal capacity. Freire shows that the process of fulfilling those roles has had an unparalleled role in shaping our society. This text challenges the reader to be conscious of that process as a means of consciously building a society that aligns with one’s core ideals. This book and author have been dismissed as socialist, leftist, and radical for decades. If you are seeking to think deeply about why our society functions as it does to make it look more the way you think it should, any political leanings within this book will be irrelevant to you. I cannot recommend this book more highly.

Robin Pendoley
Curriculum Director
Thinking Beyond Borders

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