Pedagogy of the Opressed

“Pedagogy of the Oppressed” is an incredibly interesting philosophical read. It is not often that I get the chance to read philosophy, so it was nice to see some in an educational concept. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the ideas presented by Peter McLaren in this chapter of his work. I really enjoyed the analogy of “banking” as an outdated form of teaching. This phrase is a great way to convey teachers who simply “deposit” information while students memorize it and do not comprehend. I feel like I was taught like this in various classes throughout my career and I often hated them the most. I thought of the teachers as condescending and self-serving, and after reading the section on the teacher justify their own existence by depositing information to those who don’t know it to perfectly fit my old interpretations of said classrooms. The classes that I participated in that strove for “liberation education” or “problem posing education” were always more challenging and exciting to me. I would leave ready to learn more and often times head home and do more research to be more informed in class the next meeting. In a way I left high school for Running Start because in 10^th grade most of my teachers were focused on “banking” information rather than facilitating cooperative learning between teacher and student. I hated that year for not challenging me, but I feel like if more of my teachers had focused on “problem posing education” I would have stayed.

            The usage of oppressor is being used in a liberal sense from what I can see in this chapter, but from what I read I can’t help but see it as a dystopian sort of idea. Teachers are oppressors of education teaching this is what is right and how you do it, then sending students off to the next teachers.  All of it seems very mechanical pushing all students forward with no real though provoking work on their table. To remove the oppressor the teacher must simply remove themselves from the position of power and place themselves in the students’ situations. This way we develop a simultaneous teacher and student relationship with all parties involved. I liked the wording of “critical co-investigator” because it alludes to all of us working together to solve a common problem. The idea of “unfinished beings in an unfinished reality” really pushes the idea forward that we are all trying to make sense of our world and it is our job to help guide students as they guide us to make more sense out of it. Not to lead them in black and white about what is correct and what is incorrect, but to work with them and discover what is correct, question why, and develop a better understanding with one another.