•Education and Conscientization
•Bhumi Raj Sharma
•Roll
No: 75152017
•Mphil in Education Studies
•Nepal
Open University
•
•Education and conscientization
This presentation
Includes :
•Meaning of conscientization
•Definition
•Concept
•Process
•Education and conscientization
•
•
•
•Conscientization
•
•What is conscientization ?
•Definition
•A social concept,
grounded in Marxist critical theory, that focuses on achieving an
in-depth understanding of the world, allowing for the perception and exposure
of perceived social and political contradictions.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/conscientization
•Critical
consciousness, conscientization, or conscientização in Portuguese, is a popular education and
social concept developed by Brazilian pedagogue and educational
theorist Paulo Freire, grounded
in post-Marxist critical theory. Critical consciousness focuses on
achieving an in-depth understanding of the world, allowing for the perception
and exposure of social and political contradictions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_consciousness
•Ability to critically
perceive the causes of social, political and economic oppression and to take
action against the oppressive elements of society.
•
•Definition……..
•Conscientization is the process whereby an individual becomes engaged with
transformative, democratic, and humanistic pedagogical practices, and are not
mere receptacles of reality but who as ‘knowing subjects achieve a deepening
awareness both of the socio-cultural reality which shapes their lives and of
their capacity to transform that reality’ (Freire, 1972:51).
•
•Concept of Conscientization
•Conscientization
refers to the process in which men, not as recipients, but as knowing subjects,
achieve- a deepening awareness both of the socio-cultural reality which shapes
their lives and of their capacity to transform that reality.
•It
refers to learning to perceive social, political and economic contradictions
and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality ( Freire, Opcit :15).
•
•Concept of Conscientization……….
•Men
emerge from their submersion and acquire the ability to intervene in reality as
it is unveiled. Intervention in reality - historical awareness itself – thus
represents a step forward from emergence and results from the conscientization
of the situation. This conscientization of the situation is
the deepening of the attitude of awareness characteristic of all emergence.
•Since
the basic condition for conscientization is that its agent
must be subject (i.e. a conscious being), conscientization
like education is specifically and exclusively a human process {Ibid., 31).
•Schematical Representation
Conscientization Awareness
Literacy
Empowerment literacy Liberates from
Oppression
Development Social Transformation
(Of self,personal development)
•process of conscientization
•Magical awareness
•process of conscientization
•The
first is magical awareness where individuals explain the events that shape
their lives in terms of forces and powers beyond their control, and
understanding.
•The
second stage is naïve awareness where individuals, although not passively
accepting their situation, nevertheless still accept the values, rules, and
social order they find themselves in, but still have an incomplete
understanding of their lived situation.
•The
third stage is critical awareness or consciousness whereby individuals look
more critically at their lived reality, and start to question the values, rules
and expectations of passed down by those who oppress, have power and control
over them.
•Education and conscientization
•Freire’s
main contribution to the field of non-formal education lies in the concept of conscientizacao, which has been translated as conscientization a
word coined to describe the arousing of man's positive self-concept in relation
to his environment and society through a liberating education which treats
learners as subjects (active agents) and not as objects (passive recipients).
•A
liberating education must accordingly shed the elements that perpetuate the
dichotomy of one set of people in position of prestige and authority, the
oppressors, and the others in positions of dependence and inferiority, the
oppressed (Srinivasan, 1977:1-2).
•
•Freire’s Educational Views
•Learning
begins with action.
•Knowledge
is not a set commodity.
•Education
is a communion between participants in a dialogue.
•Education
is always a political act.
•Education
is a cultural tool for liberation from oppression.
•Freire’s Educational Views…………….
•Educational practice is not an extension, but a
communication.
•The method of education must starts from the life
situation and reality of people.
•Education is a critical understanding of reality.
•Education is a phenomenon in which educator and educatee interact each other through the act of
education.
•Students should not be viewed as an empty account.
•Freire’s Philosophy
of Education
•Freire's philosophy of
education is not a simple method but rather an organic political consciousness.
•The domination of some by others must be overcome, in
his view, so that the humanization of all can take place.
•Authoritarian forms of education, in serving to
reinforce the oppressors' view of the world, and their material privilege in
it, constitute an obstacle to the liberation of human beings.
•Freire’s Philosophy
of Education………contd
•The
means of this liberation is a praxis, or
process of action and reflection, which simultaneously names reality and acts
to change it.
•Freire
criticized views that emphasized either the objective or subjective aspect of
social transformation, and insisted that revolutionary change takes place
precisely through the consistency of a critical commitment in both word and
deed.
•This
dialectical unity is expressed in his formulation, "To speak a true word is to
transform the world“. (Freire 1996, p. 68)
•Freire’s Theory of Education
According to
Paulo Freire, education either
domesticates or liberates. Keeping this in view he has propounded the following
two concepts of education.
i) Banking Concept of Education (BCE)
ii) Problem-posing Concept of Education (PCE)
•
•Banking Concept of
Education
•Education
is an instrument of oppression and domestication and is based on the theory of Antidialogical
Action. Here man is preoccupied with his own world and not with the community
at large with its problems. Here man is self centered due to his ignorance.
•In
the Banking Concept of Education, the main transaction according to Freire,
is the act of transferring information from the teacher to the students. The
students are thus the repositories and the teacher is the depositor. Certain
traditional teaching attitudes and practices are logically deduced from this
premise. Freire describes them as a
system of domestication which reflects the oppressive nature of society as a
whole •
•
•Banking Concept of
Education………..
•The
teacher teaches and the students are taught.
•The
teacher knows everything and the students know nothing.
•The
teacher thinks that the students are being taught.
•The
teacher talks and the students meekly listen.
•The
teacher disciplines and the students are the disciplined.
•The
teacher chooses and enforces his choice and the students comply.
•The
teacher acts and the students have the illusion of acting through the action of
the teacher.
•The
teacher chooses the programme content, and the
students adapt to it.
•Problem-Posing Concept of Education
(PCE)
•This
is based on the Theory of Dialogical Action.
•Theory
of Dialogical Action is based on the principles of co-operation,
unity, organisation and cultural synthesis.
Co-operation : As against the
theory of antidialogical action, which
converts a person unto a 'thing' i.e. an object, dialogical theory of action
sees a person as a 'human' i.e. a subject. Here co-operation among the subjects
is the key factor which is possible through commitment, trust, confidence and
belief of both parties or persons.
•
•
•Problem-Posing Concept
of Education (PCE)………..
Unity of Liberation : By
this it means that unity among the oppressed and unity of the leaders with the
oppressed is essential in order to achieve the liberation. This comes through
the revolutionary praxis.
Organisation: It
is rather a highly educational process in which leaders and people together
experience true authority and freedom, which they can seek to establish in
society by transforming the reality which mediates them"
•Problem-Posing Concept
of Education (PCE)………..
Cultural Synthesis :
•The aim of cultural synthesis is to surmount the
antagonistic contradictions of the social structure and thereby achieve the
liberation of man.
•"No one can teach anyone else, no one learns alone,
people learn together acting in their world".
•There is no ‘authority-dependency’ relationship.
•
•Role of the Teacher
According to Freire,
the role of the teacher or educator is to:
•Break
down the barrier between teacher and taught.
•Speak
the ‘same language’ as the learner.
•Be
aware of how they construct their world of learning.
•Be
aware of learning needs.
•Start
from where the learners are.
•Encourage
them to learn and explore their own experiences.
•A SET
OF PEDAGOGIC PRINCIPLES
•The
learners are the SUBJECTS, not the objects of the learning process; through
this approach they can become the SUBJECTS of society.
•The
educator and the learners are equal participants in the learning process; all
are the producers of knowledge.
•The
learning process is developed by a continuous dialogue between the educator and
the learners.
•The
objective of the learning process is to liberate the participants from their
external and internal oppression; to make them capable of changing their
reality, their lives and the society they live in.
•
•PAULO FREIRE
METHODOLOGY
•TO SEE the situation lived by the participants.
•TO ANALYZE this situation, analyzing the root causes
(socio-economic, political, cultural, etc.)
•TO ACT to change this situation, following the precepts
of Social Justice.
I. FIND THE PROBLEMS (GENERATIVE
THEMES)
•Participants research – get to know participants and
their life and work settings.
•Get the background and facts about the issues that
affected them.
•Understanding / READING the World in which we live
together.
•PAULO FREIRE
METHODOLOGY…………contd
II.
PRODUCE THE CODES (CODIFICATION)
•Create
a material representation ( a drawing, a video, a photo, a puppet).
•Show,
an audiotape, etc. to capture the
GENERATIVE THEMES.
•Create
a play or skit including many or all of the GENERATIVE THEMES
III.
THREE STEPS INDUCTIVE QUESTIONING PROCESS
A. TO SEE THE SITUATION AS PARTICIPANTS
EXPERIENCE IT
• Describe the situation shown in the CODE
• Define the problems in the situation
• Make the link between the participants and the
problems
•
•PAULO FREIRE
METHODOLOGY…………contd
B. TO ANALYZE THE
SITUATION
• Why did this
happen?
• How is this
perpetuated and/or sustained?
• What are the
immediate effects and the root causes of these problems? (socioeconomic,
political, cultural)
C. TO ACT
TO CHANGE THE
SITUATION
•Short
term Action (next 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months: affecting one of the Problem
Tree’s leaves)
•long
term Action (next 3 months, 3 years: affecting one of the Problem Trees’ source
roots)
The 3 Basic Steps of this Methodology
are:
•to SEE,
•to ANALYZE,
•To ACT.
These steps are
repeated over and over again, following the changes in the situation as
experienced by the participants.
•
•Criticism
•Freire as demagogic and
utopian.
•Idealism in his view of popular consciousness.
•failing to take into account the radical differences
between forms of oppression, as well as their complex and contradictory
instantiation in subjects.
•Freire's writing suffers from
sexism in its language and from a patriarchal notion of revolution and subjecthood,
as well as a lack of emphasis on domination based on race and ethnicity.
•Postmodernists have pointed to the contradiction between
Freire's sense of the
historicity and contingency of social formations versus his vision of
liberation as a universal human vocation.
•Finally
•Paulo Freire
is often described as a humanistic, militant educator who believed that
solutions in education are always found in concrete context.
•Students should be asked what they want to learn.
•There must be a collaboration, union and cultural
synthesis.
•The educator should not manipulate students but should
also not leave them to their own fate.
•He should direct tasks and study not order students.
•He believed that the liberating educator invites
students to think.
•This allows the students to make and remake their worlds
and become more human.
• Freire believed that
communication should be simple even if the information is complex.
•Simplifying, allows for deeper accessibility by the
students.
•
•Finally………
•Conscientization
is the ability to critically perceive the causes of social, political and
economic oppression and to take action against the oppressive elements of
society.
•The
ultimate aim of conscientization must forever be
humanization.
•The
meaning, dignity and worthiness of being-in-and-with-the-world as human beings
are all inscribed in a loving, critical and creative spirit and endless cycles
of transformative praxis .
•References
•
• Andrew Armitage(2013), “Conscientization, Dialogue and
Collaborative Problem Based Learning”; Anglia Ruskin University, Bishop Hall Lane, CM1 1SQ
Chelmsford, UK (VOL. 1)
•Freire, P. (1970) Pedagogy
of the oppressed. London, Penguin
•Freire, P. (1974) Education:
The Practice of Freedom, London: Writers and Readers Publishing Corporation
•FREIRE,
PAULO. 1973. Education for Critical Consciousness. New York:
Seabury
•Sinha K., 1995, Education Comparitive Study of Gandhi and Freire, Commonwealth
Publishers, New Delhi.
•http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1998/Freire-Paulo-1921-1997.html
•https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/conscientization
•https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_consciousness
•http://www.freire.org
•http://www.openuniclsu.edu
•https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240703235_Freire_Conscientization_and_Adult_Education
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Thank You
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