Philosophical Foundations of

Freire’s PedagogyDr. Rey Ty

Philosophical Foundations of

Freire’s Pedagogy

Dr. Rey Ty

Problem• Freire has written many

books: Need to identify trends in his ontology, gnosiology, axiology, paradigm in his own words, especially as his perspectives have evolved through time

Research Questions• In Freire’s philosophy of education,

what are his…–1. Ontology?

–2. Epistemology?

–3. Axiology?

–4. Paradigm?

–5. Context/s for education for social transformation?

1 Philosophy & Education

2 Paradigm in Education

4 Context

5 Education

6 Social Transformation

3 Ideology

Theory-Building• 1. Socrates, Freire: Dialogue as

Epistemology, not Methodology

• 2. Aristotle: Taxonomy, Typology

• 3. Plato, Hegel,Marx & Engels: Analysis, Dialectics, Synthesis

1 Philosophy & Education

Paradigm in Education

Context

Education

Social Transformation

Ideology

Philosophy

Ontology Epistemology Axiology

Hope, 1996, p. 127• Freire on Philosophy: “…

discussion turned preponderantly on political questions, and these led us to philosophical, ethical, ideological, and epistemological questions.”

Ontology:The Chicken& The Egg

Thinking

Being

Ontology

Matter & Being

Consciousness & Thinking

Which is Primary?

Which is Derivative?

Ontology

Matter Ideas

Materialism Idealism

Relationship Between Thinking

& Being

Thinking, Ideas &Consciousness

First

Being, Matter & Practice

First

Idealism Materialism

Idealism

SubjectiveIdealism

ObjectiveMaterialism

Anti-Idealism• “This solution cannot be achieved in

idealistic terms. In order for the oppressed to be able to wage the struggle for their liberation, they must perceive the reality of the oppression not as a closed world from which there is no exit but as a limiting situation which they can transform.” Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.

Materialism• “the historical, economic, and

social reasons that explain…” (Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of hope. New York: Continuum, p. 8)

• “I am hopeful…out of an existential, concrete imperative.” (Hope, 1996, p. 8)

• “reading the world” (Heart, 2006, p. 76)

Oppressed, 1997, p. 35• Materialism: “…no reality transforms

itself, and the duty which Lukács ascribes to the revolutionary party of ‘explaining to the masses their own action’ coincides with our affirmation of the need for the critical intervention of the people in reality through praxis. The pedagogy of the oppressed, which is the pedagogy of the people engaged in the fight for their own liberation, has its roots here.”

Oppressed, 1997, p. 35• Freire quoted Marx & Engels on Dialectics

and Materialism: “The materialist doctrine that men are products of circumstances and upbringing, and that, therefore, changed men are products of other circumstances and changed upbringing, forgets that it is men that change circumstances and that the educator himself needs education.” Marx & Engels, Selected Works (NY: 1968, p. 28).

Oppressed, 1997, p. 26• Influence of Early Marx:

• “Concern for humanization leads at once to the recognition of dehumanization, not only as an ontological possibility but as an historical reality.”

Gnosiology (Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of hope. New York: Continuum, p. 236)

• Materialist Gnosiology: “How is the ‘basistic,’ voluntaristic temptation to be resisted—and how is the intellectualistic, verbalistic temptation to engage in sheer empty chatter to be overcome?”

• “It is impossible to make education both a political practice and a gnosiological one, fully, without the constant stimulus of these questions, or without our constantly answering them.”

Early Freire• “democratic process” (Consciousness, 2002, p. 41)

Middle Freire• Humanization (Oppressed,

1997, p.25)• “humanist and libertarian”

(Ibid, p. 36)• “critical consciousness” (Ibid,

p. 54)• “authentic liberation” (Ibid, p.

60)• “dialogue” & “love” (Ibid, p. 70)• “true humanists” (ibid, p. 77)

Mature Freire• Non-discrimination

against “blacks, women, homosexuals, the indigenous, the fat, the old” (Heart, 2006, p. 106)

Mutability &Connections

Dialectics Metaphysics

Dialectics vs.Metaphysics

MaterialistDialectics

Idealist Dialectics

Hegel,Kant

Aristotle,Heraclitus

Dialectics

1Ancient GreekSpontaneous

MaterialistDialectics

2German Idealist

Dialectics

3Marxist

MaterialistDialectics

Heraclitus,Aristotle

Kant, HegelMarx, Engels,

Lenin, Mao

Materialist Philosophy

Changing Space Time

HistoricalDialectical Context

Partisan-ship

Class,Gender,

Ethnicity…

Resolving

Contradictio

ns

Oppressed, 1997, p. 30• Dialectics: “The oppressed suffer

from the duality which has established itself in the innermost being.”

• Resolving Contradictions: “The pedagogy of the oppressed is an instrument for their critical discovery that both they and their oppressors are manifestations of dehumanization.”

Dialectics (Oppressed, 1997, p. 33)

• Dialectical Method: “…This can be done only by means of the praxis: reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it.”

Dialectics• “action-reflection-action” (Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of

hope. New York: Continuum, p. 53)• “The relationship, language-thought-world, is a dialectical,

processual, contradictory relationship.” (Hope, 1996, p. 68)• “Subjectivism or mechanistic objectivism are both

antidialectical, and thereby incapable of apprehending the permanent tension between consciousness and the world” (Hope, 1996, p. 100)

• “for dogmatic, mechanistic positions, the consciousness…takes shape as…epiphenomenon…for dialectic, the importance of consciousness is in the fact that, not being the maker of reality, neither is it, at the opposite pole, a pure reflex of reality.” (Hope, 1996, p. 101)

• “dialectical comprehension of the relationship bet. world & awareness, bet. econ. production & cult. production, that it seems valid to me to call progressive educators’ attention to the contradictory movement between culture’s ‘negativities’ & ‘positivities’.” (Hope, 1996, p. 107)

Materialist Dialectics(Oppressed, 1997, pp. 106-7)

• Quoting Lenin on the dialectical relationship between theory and practice: “ ‘Without a revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement’ means that a revolution is achieved with neither verbalism nor activism, but rather with praxis, that is, with reflection and action directed at the structures to be transformed.”

Dialectics (Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of hope. New York: Continuum, p. 133)

• Dialectics: “…a critical understanding of language in its dialectical relationship with thought and world: the dialectical interrelations of language, ideology, social classes, and education.”

Time

DiachronicHistory

SynchronicSnapshot

Epistemology(Gnosiology)

The world isknowable

The world is not Knowable

Materialism Idealism

Consciousness, 2002, p. 2

•Epistemology:

The “world [is] an objective reality, independent of oneself, capable of being known.”

Dialogue as Epistemology• Oppressed, 1997, p. 76: “…

revolutionary leaders do not go to the people in order to bring them a message of ‘salvation,’ but in order to come to know through dialogue with them both their objective situation and their awareness of that situation—the various levels of perception of themselves and of the world in which and with which they exist.”

Oppressed, 1997, p. 109• Dialogue as Epistemology:

• “Dialogue with the people is radically necessary to every authentic revolution.”

• “The earlier the dialogue begins, the more truly revolutionary will the movement be.”

Epistemology(Consciousness, 2002, p. 146)

• “Education as a Gnosiological State”

• “The human being is a conscious body. His or her consciousness, with its ‘intentionality’ towards the world, is always conscious of something. It is in a permanent state of moving towards reality. Hence the condition of the human being is to be in constant relationship to the world.”

Idealism vs. Materialism

• Idealism–Truth is subjective

•Materialism–Truth is objective

Objectivity

(Consciousness, 2002, p. 2)• Materialism: “To be human is

to engage in relationships with others and with the world. It is to experience that world as an objective reality, independent of oneself, capable of being known.”

Anti-Subjectivism(Oppressed, 1997, p. 34)

• Critique of Subjectivist view: “…the oppressed must confront reality critically, simultaneously objectifying and acting upon that reality. A mere perception of reality not followed by this critical intervention will not lead to a transformation of objective reality—precisely because it is not a true perception.”

Contradictions

Antagonistic Non-

Antagonistic

Contradictions(Oppressed, 1997, p. 29)

• Dialectical resolution of contradictions: “But the struggle to be more fully human has already begun in the authentic struggle to transform the situation.”

Dogmatism

Universalizingthe Particular

Pragmatism

Extreme Subjectivism

Solipsism

Adventurism

Romanticism

Voluntarism

Problems

Consciousness, 2002, p. 9

ResearchParadigm

CriticalTheory

Interpretivism Positivism

1 Philosophy & Education

2 Paradigm in Education

4 Context

5 Education

6 Social Transformation

3 Ideology

Ideology & Philosophy (Oppressed, 1997, pp. 12-13)

• In his own words, he is influenced by:

• “Sartre and Mounier, Erich Fromm and Louis Althusser, Ortega y Gasset and Mao, Martin Luther King and Che Guevarra, Unamuno and Marcuse.”

• Sartre, p. 57

• Reinhold Neibuhr, p. 59

• Hence: (Christian) Existentialism, Classical Marxism, Critical Theory/Western Marxism, New Social Movement

Ideology & Philosophy(Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of hope.

New York: Continuum, 1996)• “explain and defend progressive

postmodernity & it will reject conservative, neoliberal postmodernity” (p. 10)

• “progressively postmodern” (p. 96)

• “progressive postmodern” (p. 132)

Sociologyof

Education

Conflict Conformity

Reality

Objectivity Subjectivity

HolisticAnalysis

Material Base

Reflection

Existentialism (Oppressed, 1997, p. 29)

• Sartrian Existentialism: “The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom. Freedom would require them to eject this image and replace it with autonomy and responsibility.”

1Philosophy & Education

2 Paradigm in Education

Context

Education

Social Transformation

3 Ideology

Left Center RightGeneralized Ideological Divide

Revo. Third Soc. Dem Libertarian Conservative Reactionary

Marxist World & Critical

Specific Ideological Divide

Radical Ideology Always• “The radical, committed to human liberation,

does not become a prisoner of a ‘circle of certainty’ within which reality is also imprison.”

• “The fact that I have not personally participated in revolutionary action, however, does not negate the possibility of my reflecting on this theme.” (Oppressed, 1997, pp. 21-22)

• “The radical is a Subject to the degree that he perceives historical contradictions in increasingly critical fashion; however, he does not consider himself the proprietor of history.” (Consciousness, 2002, p. 12)

Ideology• In favor of progressives (Heart, 2006, p. 55)

• Opposed to neoliberals (Heart, 2006, p. 55)

• Opposed to sectarianism (Hope, 1996, p. 50)

• Opposed to sexist language” (Hope, 1996, p. 65): “it is not a grammatical problem, but an ideological one” (Hope, 1996, p. 67)

• Opposed to “authoritarian vanguardist leaders” (Hope, 1996, p. 114)

• Opposed to “any back-alley neoliberal knows very well that such view is absolute nonsense…” (Heart, 2006, p. 75).

1Philosophy & Education

2 Paradigm in Education

4 Context

5 Education

6 Social Transformation

3 Ideology

Pedagogy

CriticalPedagogy

BankingMethod

Education• “the basic importance of education

as an act of cognition, not only of the content, but of the “why” of economic, social, political, ideological, and historical facts, which explain…our conscious body, under which we find ourselves placed” (Hope, 1996, p. 102)

Materialist Philosophy

Critical Paradigm

Brazilian & Other 3W Contexts. Later West also.

3W & Education Programs, Later West too

Social Transformation in Different Contexts

Third World Ideology

Conclusion: Summary & Implications

• Freire borrowed ideas from many thinkers • Contribution: weave them together as his• He defies categorization, as his thought was dynamic

& ever-changing• 1. Ontology: Materialist• 2. Epistemology: Knowability, Dialogue• 3. Axiology: Social Justice• 4. Paradigm: Critical

– Nationalism, Christian existentialism, classical Marxism, Western Marxism (critical theory), progressive postmodern

• 5. Context: Brazil, Third World & the West later

References:• Freire, P. (2006). Pedagogy of the heart. New York:

Continuum.• Freire, P. (2005). Pedagogy of the oppressed.

New York: Continuum.• Freire, P. (2002). Education for critical

consciousness. New York: Continuum.• Freire, P. (1997). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New

York: Continuum.• Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of hope. New York:

Continuum.• Freire, P. (1993). Pedagogy of the oppressed.

New York: Continuum. • Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New

York: Continuum.

Thank You!

Fair Use• In good faith, this work contains fair use of copyrighted

and non-copyrighted images from the public domain & the web for non-commercial & nonprofit educational purposes.

• This work is distributed free of charge.• The author has neither monetized this work nor sought any

profit from its distribution.• Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright

Act 1976: Allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

• This work contains original work of commentary and critical analysis.

• Quotations are attributed to the original authors and sources.