A few years ago, I worked on a project with an organization called Gathering Ground, where we used Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” as the basis for creating anti-racist capitalist interventions in the “nonprofit industrial complex.” I have since updated the glossary, which includes bolded words that define a concept when that word also appears elsewhere in the glossary. I created the glossary because we found people struggled to understand Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and we thought it would make it easier. Also, there is so much emphasis on the "banking model of education" concept explained in the first two chapters that the ideas of colonial and anti-colonial organizing in chapters 3 & 4 get less attention. As Freire introduces a lot of new conceptual language, it can be hard to keep the book's overall frame in mind. Quiet as it's kept, and some of its quietness, particularly about socialism, is disappointing since that's the basis of much of its theoretical framework; the book is really about providing tools and a theoretical model for revolutionary change, not how to be a good classroom teacher. One objective of this updated glossary is to show how the book's ideas connect and reinforce one another toward this overall objective.
Glossary
Banking Model of Education: One half of the most famous dialectic of ideas in Pedagogy, the other being the problem-posing model of education, is the idea of depositing a topic whole into the minds of students or whomever the target audience is. Freire opposes this kind of education and, by calling it the “banking model,” links it to capitalism.
Critical consciousness: The ultimate objective of Pedagogy, this kind of critical thinking and self-awareness is brought about through reflection and action. Critical consciousness empowers people to examine their current situation and their relationship to the social and political systems that cause oppression and inequity, and to intervene to change that situation so all people are humanized and dignified. In the Freirean model, critical consciousness can mean the capacity to see the underlying themes or the heart of the issue in terms of oppression, oppressor, and oppressed, and to be able to summarize it by naming the limit-situation, and to be able to imagine a world beyond the current oppression, the untested feasibility, and bring this world into being with limit acts. Freire's focus on consciousness can lead to an overemphasis on how people think and a certain reformism, rather than on making a revolutionary change to our social conditions.
Dialectics: The term appears only once in PO, but familiarity with this idea is important to understanding the book because Freire uses it throughout. Dialectics is a process of finding deeper truths and more effective practices by understanding relationships between entities, ideas, and phenomena such as the particular and the whole, the specific and the totality, and the concrete and the abstract. This is visible in Freire’s style of examining the relationship, or conversation, between opposites such as being a subject or an object; the generative theme and the universal theme, limit-situation and the limit-act; immersion/critical consciousness; and banking education/problem-posing education. After Socrates, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel may be the most famous figure associated with dialectics; he influenced Marx, and both influenced Freire. Europeans often give themselves credit for the idea of dialectics, but this is just typical Eurocentricity in action. Many cultures have ideas on interplay between opposites. Most familiar to us in the U.S. may be the Asian system of yin-yang, but there are also ideas of osogbo/ire (darkness, contraction and misfortune/light, expansion and good fortune) in the Lucumi and Ifa systems of Cuba and Nigeria, respectively.
Dialogue/Dialogic: Dialogue sits at the heart of Pedagogy of the Oppressed’s method and is closely tied to the use of the “true word”. The dialogue develops as we pose problems to one another and name the themes of oppression we see or are experiencing. Dialogue helps us to identify the unifying factor of these themes, the limit-condition, and it develops further as we imagine a situation in which this oppression has been overcome, the untested feasibility, and culminates in defining the actions that will take us beyond the oppression, i.e the limit-act, our commitment to action.
False Generosity: Although Pedagogy doesn't really use class analysis, per se, the clearest place to see this concept in the U.S. is in the capital class’s construction of philanthropy and the nonprofit sector. The sector is framed in terms of “charity,” both in how it explains itself publicly and as a 501 C-3 tax structure. Freire sees grantmaking from this structure as a form of “false generosity” born of oppression and states: “To have the continued opportunity to express their ‘generosity,’ the oppressors must perpetuate injustice as well. An unjust social order is the permanent fount of this ‘generosity,’ which is nourished by death, despair and poverty. […] That is why the dispensers of false generosity become desperate at the slightest threat to its source. True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity.” (pg. 44-45 of the 50th anniversary edition) As a name for a number of funder behaviors, False Generosity is also a “limit-situation”.
Generative Theme: the initial issue that brings people together, which is why it is "generative"; often, these are symptoms of a deeper underlying root cause or “limit situation,” but it is the pathway to begin a conversation with student/teachers about their social conditions (Freire uses this dialectic of student-teacher/teacher-student to show everyone is always both).
Immersion: A state in which oppression is made normal by the oppressors and thus invisible to the oppressed; immersion is one of the ultimate limit-situations in Pedagogy. The purpose of critical consciousness is to disrupt immersion, and so increasing critical consciousness can be an untested feasibility. Immersion can be likened to the Marxist/Antonio Gramsci idea of hegemony, or the idea that the ruling ideas of any given moment are those of the ruling class.
Limit-Act: The limit act moves beyond the limit situation and brings about the untested feasibility. The limit-act is our campaign, action, our intervention; it is our praxis.
Limit-Situation: The fundamental and addressable summary of the identified generative themes. The limit condition is the root cause of oppression, intended by oppressors to be perceived as an immutable “reality” or “truth,” or an unchangeable limit. This limit is the target of the “limit-act.” “For (Professor Alvaro) Viera Pinto, ‘the limit-situations’ are not the impassable boundaries where possibilities end, but the real boundaries where all possibilities begin.’ They are not ‘the frontier which separates being from nothingness but the frontier which separates being from being more.’” (footnote 15 in Chapter 3 of Pedagogy of the Oppressed). In other words, limit situations invite limit acts and reflect the dialectic of "oppression breeds resistance."
Freire sees the ultimate limit situation as the system’s anti-dialogic nature and the ultimate limit-act as constructing dialogic processes and practices intended to bring about a new system. In the fourth chapter, he offers 4 key expressions of what it means to be anti-dialogic and dialogic. Below are the key strategies of anti-dialogic (oppression) and dialogic practice (resistance).
Object: To be an object in the world is to be acted upon, to be oppressed by those who see themselves as subjects, self-determining people/classes. For Freire, animals are objects; they cannot enter history and shape it to their liking, and critical consciousness is what separates animals from human beings, objects from subjects.
Oppressed: Classes of people who are acted upon and made objects of oppressors' will. These categories are not fixed, but are relational. One can be in a class oppressed by others and also in a class that oppresses others.
Oppressors: Classes of people that seek to deny the humanity and subjectivity of other classes of people in order to keep the capacity to be subjects for themselves and to turn other classes into objects, i.e., those that will be acted upon.
Praxis (Action/Reflection): Praxis fuses reflection and action. Ideally, a “limit-act” is praxis. This fusion is critical for Freire. To simply reflect is to be a passive observer, but to act without reflection is to be an “activist,” someone enthralled with doing things with little theoretical framework for what this movement will accomplish.
Problem-Posing Model of Education: Problem-posing education, the dialectical opposite of the “banking model,” is where teachers and students pose complex questions about their social conditions to help move the collective toward critical consciousness.
Subject: To be a subject in the world is to be self-determining and to be able to determine the life outcomes one wants for oneself. This means one must not be under conditions of oppression and one has critical consciousness.
Themes: Engaging in what Freire names in Chapter 3 as "Thematic Investigation," a range of themes is described, including "generative," "local," and "universal" themes. Developing themes is central to Freire's method of engaging community and student-teachers in examining their lives and building critical consciousness. The idea is that the specific thing that gets our attention, the generative theme, the specific event or occurrence, is linked to a regional theme, something that is a sign of our region, and a universal theme such as "conquest" or "cultural invasion" that is a sign of this time period or era. The thematic investigation then lets us use dialogue to determine what unifies these themes so we can decide what we must act against.
The true word: This idea appears at the outset of chapter three as Freire states, “To speak a true word is to transform the world.” The true word both contains thoughtful reflection and inspires action. All words implicate our practice and name the oppressors and the oppressed to the best of our understanding. Words without aligned action = verbalism / empty words. Action without reflection = acts without transformation. In our work to end oppression, we are challenged to use authentic words and give one another authentic feedback. Whether we are defining what we are doing, sharing an analysis publicly, or giving feedback on a project or action, the challenge of “the true word” presents itself.
Untested Feasibility: The untested feasibility is the reality that lives right outside the limit situation; it is the reality we imagine if the themes of oppression were eliminated.
Freire’s schema of anti-dialogical and dialogical modes of expression
ANTI-DIALOGICAL (oppressive)
1. Conquest. Using myths and constructing screens of ignorance, the oppressed class is subjugated, kept passive, and remains in a state of immersion. This is not simply the oppressor class; it can also apply to those who claim to be revolutionaries but withhold real opportunities for dialogue from the people. The process of conquest is one in which one group decides it will be a subjective force not only for itself but on behalf of others.
2. Divide and rule. This aims at preserving the status quo. The oppressing class struggles to ensure that the problems of the oppressed are not seen as part of a totality but are reduced to local issues. This prevents people from understanding their real condition and militates against the oppressed people's unification and united action. Oppressed people are also divided against one another when the oppressors select certain members of this class for leadership programs, and the like, so that they can model for the oppressed how to behave and reproduce the status quo.
3. Manipulation. Again, using divide-and-rule tactics, as well as mollifying social programs, the oppressors pursue the ultimate aim of conquest. The people must create organizations to defend their interests and not rely on individual, charismatic leaders.
4. Cultural invasion. Through this process, the oppressors impose their cultural views of the world and inhibit the maintenance of the invaded people's traditions by curbing their expression, creating in them a sense of inferiority and reducing their subjectivity. However, this process is often carried out by the managerial class, who may imagine themselves as assisting the oppressed but actually control their lives. In fact, if revolutionary leaders are not careful, they will also take on similar positions. As always, Freire is deeply concerned about what he considers the misuse of authority, whether by the oppressor or by revolutionary leaders, many of whom come from managerial classes trained to see themselves as leaders for the people rather than with the people.
DIALOGICAL (liberatory)
1. Co-operation. This is based on the communion between leaders and the people and promotes the idea that this is central to the process of liberation. Freire again emphasizes the need for dialogue between the people and leaders and offers the life of Che Guevara as an example of what it means to be taught through cooperation with the people.
2. Unity for liberation. This must be based on cultural action by leaders and the people, permeating all spheres of life and grounded in a real understanding of their total situation. As he does throughout chapter 4, Freire speaks of the need for class consciousness so the people can build internal unity and eliminate their own ambivalence toward liberation. This consciousness is built through cultural action, in other words, praxis informed by critical consciousness.
3. Authentic organization. This is a delicate balance of authority and freedom, where the organization can hold leadership accountable while also accepting that authority must be used in the revolutionary process.
4. Cultural synthesis. This is the process of developing revolutionary culture by using the model of thematic investigation to examine, with the people, what must be done to change the people's conditions. This process of building a revolutionary culture involves synthesizing current needs with revolutionary objectives and collectively building critical and class consciousness.
