Pedagogy of the Oppressed

In the first chapter, Freire introduces the revolutionary context underlying his analysis of oppression as a dehumanizing system of exploitation. After laying out the philosophical ground for the struggle for liberation from oppression, he describes oppression’s dehumanizing effects on both the oppressed and their oppressors. Finally, he explains how education must be remade to motivate and empower the oppressed in their pursuit of emancipation. This new form of education centers on the importance of ongoing dialogue between the oppressed and their educators. Dialogue engages men and women as thinking and acting subjects, rather than treating them as passive receptacles of information. Through dialogue based on mutual trust, the disenfranchised begin to acquire the critical self-awareness and moral commitment necessary to pursue their own liberation.

The pedagogy of the oppressed has two stages.The first deals with the “problem of consciousness” in an oppressive society.It addresses the psychological conditioning of the oppressed and their oppressors that the dehumanizing system of social injustice produces.In this stage, the oppressed become critically conscious of their oppression and commit themselvesto intervene in this situation.The second stage comes after the dominant elite have been expelled from power and the social systemis transformed through revolution.The pedagogy of the oppressed now becomes “a pedagogy of all people in the process of permanent liberation” (54).

Freire frames the struggle for liberation within the philosophical question of what it means to be human. He poses the problem of the oppressed in moral terms, appealing to the Enlightenment idea that to be human is to be free to think and act autonomously. Becoming more fully human is our “vocation” as human beings. It is the birthright of all, regardless of social class, origin, ethnicity, or gender. Though the exploitation of one group by another has been historically commonplace, it is not an unavoidable destiny. Rather, oppression is “the result of an unjust order that engenders violence in the oppressors, which in turn dehumanizes the oppressed” (44). Both oppressor and oppressed are dehumanized by the relationship of exploitation permeating their collective society.

It is natural that the oppressed will take revolutionary action to recover their lost humanity. However, this struggle will have meaning only if the oppressed do not, in turn, become “oppressors of the oppressors, but rather restorers of the humanity of both” (44). Freire contends that only the strength of the weak can bring about the greater humanization of both the weak and the strong. Accordingly, the first task of the pedagogy of the oppressed is to enable “their critical discovery that both they and their oppressors are manifestations of dehumanization” (48).

To explain this dehumanization and describe its effects, Freire analyzes the “false consciousness” that afflicts both oppressor and oppressed and sustains the system of oppression. He then relates how a dialogue-based method of education can overcome the effects of false consciousness and, through the exercise of critical reflection combined with action (“praxis”), enable an authentic struggle for liberation.

Oppression is organized violence; the act of oppression is, in fact, the violence that creates the oppressed. This violence originates in the possessiveness of the oppressor. The oppressor consciousness equates being with having, and in its drive to acquire ever more possessions it treats objects, resources, and people as things to be owned or manipulated for its profit. Moreover, if “being” consists of “having,” those who lack material possessions and social status are reduced to the status of non-being. The domination of the poor by the powerful in all its forms—physical as well as ideological—treats men and women as objects, thus denying them their essential humanity.

Freire contends that the dominant elite will never willingly allow the oppressed to escape their subjugation and enjoy unhindered access to power and material goods: “[A]ny attempt to ‘soften’ the power of the oppressor in deference to the weakness of the oppressed almost always manifests itself in the form of false generosity” (44). This generosity—whether in the form of private charity or state-sponsored welfare—is false because the oppressor must maintain the unjust conditions that enable it. False generosity further dehumanizes those already oppressed, keeping them dependent on their exploiters.

However, as the oppressed attempt to improve their material situation, their effort is undermined by their own false consciousness. Freire observes that the oppressed are often inclined to treat others as they have been treated by their oppressors, rather than fight for true liberation from the oppressive social structure. This is due to the toxic psychological conditioning that saturates oppressive society:

The very structure of their thought has been conditioned by the contradictions of the concrete, existential situation by which they were shaped. Their ideal is to be men; but for them, to be men is to be oppressors (45).

The oppressed cannot think beyond the fundamental duality that has formed their concrete experience, namely, that between ‘oppressor’ and ‘oppressed.’ Once enjoying a taste of greater autonomy and material possessions, they are inclined to act exploitatively as the oppressor acts, modeling their behavior on his.

In this initial stage of the struggle for liberation, the oppressed are trapped within the dichotomy of the two opposing categories (or “contradictions”) that exist in the historical situation of oppression. True liberation involves overcoming the duality of ‘oppressor versus oppressed’ and resolving the problem of oppression in a way that supersedes these antagonistic positions, restoring full humanity to all. As Freire writes, “the solution of this contradiction is born in the labor which brings into the world this new being: no longer oppressor nor oppressed, but human in the process of achieving freedom” (49).

The first step in dismantling the systematic oppression of the poor, then, is to unveil the deep-seated ideologies and patterns of thought that support and sustain it. This stage must address the worldviews and ethics of both the oppressor and the oppressed, as well as their behavior.

Freire identifies five characteristics of the oppressed consciousness that hinder the oppressed in their struggle and accommodate them to their submission. These are the fear of freedom, dual-consciousness, submersion in the oppressive situation, a fatalistic attitude, and self-depreciation.

The fear of freedom is one of the major obstacles to the liberation of the oppressed. Under conditions of oppression, men and women internalize the image of the oppressor and adopt his guidelines for behavior. They are fearful of the risks associated with abandoning those guidelines and assuming responsibility for their freedom. Freedom is not a gift and must be won. At the same time, it is a fundamental value, “the indispensable condition for the quest for human completion” (47). The first step in educating the oppressed to fight for freedom is to help them critically recognize the specific causes of their oppression and discover within themselves the desire to be free.

However, the oppressed suffer from a dual-consciousness that complicates this effort: “although they desire authentic existence, they fear it. They are at one and the same time themselves and the oppressor whose consciousness they have internalized” (47). The dilemma between choosing freedom or the seeming security of the status quo cuts through the hearts and minds of the oppressed. Housing the oppressor within themselves, they are torn “between speaking out or being silent[,]” between being fully themselves or being self-divided (48). Freire insists that the oppressed must come to recognize clearly the oppressor outside themselves, ejecting his internalized image, in order to perceive accurately the totality of their oppression.

This perception is made difficult by the submerged consciousness of the oppressed. The state of oppression absorbs those within it, preventing them from perceiving the reality of oppression objectively. Submerged in the oppressive reality, they adapt to their exploitation, behaving according to the guidelines the oppressor prescribes for them. They are unable to “clearly perceive the ‘order’ which serves the interests of the oppressors whose image they have internalized” (62).As a result of “internalizing” the oppressor, they also, at a certain stage, identify with him.The oppressedare often attracted to the lifestyle of the oppressor and aspire to share it, further exacerbating their dual consciousness.

Furthermore, until they become critically aware of the oppressor and their own conditioning, the oppressed typically display a fatalistic attitude toward their situation. Manipulated ideologically by the oppressor, the oppressed see their social status as part of the “natural” order and their suffering as the will of God. Consequently, they submit passively to an unjust social order, which they accept as a given.

Their passivity is also reinforced by self-depreciation. Denigrated by the oppressor for their supposed laziness, incompetence, and ignorance, the oppressed lack self-esteem.The revolutionary educator must always remain aware of the oppressed’s inclination toward passivity and emotional dependence, therefore, as well as recognize the potential for transformation during their moments of awakening.

Simply recognizing the causes of their oppression is not enough, however, to liberate the oppressed. They must pursue the struggle for liberation through a combination of reflection and revolutionary action, which Freire terms “praxis.” In the praxis, critical reflection and action continually alternate and influence each other. Praxis constantly renews itself; the reflection of the oppressed and their leaders must lead to liberating action (reflection itself is a form of action), and the results of action must become the object of critical reflection.

Genuine liberation for alldoes not mean that the formerly oppressed now become oppressors of those who previously exploited them, however. Freire acknowledges that certain restraints need to be placed on the formerly powerful to prevent them from reassuming that position, but this does not constitute oppression.However, even when the social structure of oppression has been overcome, “the former oppressors do not feel liberated” by a more egalitarian society, but “genuinely consider themselves to be oppressed” in turn (57).Any restriction on their former way of life, even for the common good, seems to them a violent infringement of their rights.

This way of thinking is rooted in their experience as a dominant class.Materialistic and exploitative, the oppressor tends to transform everything around him into an object of his domination.Even the idea of “humanity” is reduced to a “thing,” which he possesses with an exclusive right.

Feeling entitled to his privileged position, the oppressor is angered by what he sees as the oppressed’s “ingratitude” for the “generosity” shown to them.Accordingly, he redoubles his efforts to control the oppressed through manipulation and suppression. Freire, quoting the psychoanalyst Erich Fromm, argues that this “in-animating” of the oppressed reveals the sadistic tendency of the oppressor consciousness.In trying to suffocate the natural vitality and desire for freedom among the oppressed, the oppressor revealshisown necrophilia, or death-loving instinct.

Freire rejects the claims of the powerful that the oppressed are wantonly violent, suggesting that their effort to overcome the dehumanization of oppression is in reality an act of love.The oppressor loves only himself; he initiates the terror under which the oppressed suffer.By contrast, the oppressed respond to this violence out of a righteous desire to be more fully human.Since the oppressors’ dehumanization of the oppressed dehumanizes themselves as well, by stripping away the oppressors’ “power to dominate and suppress, [the oppressed] restore to the oppressors the humanity they had lost in the exercise of oppression” (56). Thus, it is the historical mission of the oppressed to achieve this liberation of all humankind.

The education of the oppressed, accordingly, cannot proceed by monologues, communiqués, propagandistic slogans, or other “instruments of domestication” (65). These tools of the oppressor objectify his listeners. Rather, the oppressed must be their own example in the struggle for liberation and accept full responsibility for that struggle.Revolutionary education must consist of dialogue respecting the knowledge and experience of the oppressed, since “trusting the people is the indispensable precondition for revolutionary change” (60). Dialogical education expresses the consciousness and validates the autonomy of the oppressed, both of which are necessary for their struggle for freedom (54).