Paolo Freire's Views on Oppression

¶ … people living in Western democracies probably do not considered themselves as oppressed because their daily living needs are met and they live in relative safety and comfort. As a result, they remain disinterested in most of the pressing issues that contribute to their own oppression as well as the oppression of others because the underlying forces at work are nebulous and not readily discernible.

Nevertheless, educators such as Paolo Freire maintain that the complacency that results from a disinterested public combined with institutionalized practices that disadvantage many segments of society are forces of oppression that must be countered in order to save humankind. This paper provides an analysis of Freire's concept concerning the oppressed, drawing on his seminal work, The Pedagogy of the Oppressed and other relevant commentary to describe the term contextually and a definition according to Freirian theory.

Finally, an application of this term to an example from a real-life situation is followed by a summary of the research and important findings concerning the oppressed in the conclusion. Review and Discussion In his book, The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire (1997) maintains that education is an essential part of overcoming oppression and that conflict can be a positive experience when it results in increased consciousness, an outcome that represents the sole pathway to hope.

According to Adair, "This hope is centered on being able to reflect and act on injustice" (2008, p. 408). Contextually, the term "the oppressed" can be applied to any marginalized segment of a society, and it is typically used in reference to segments such as minorities, women, children, and the elderly (Mullaly, 2011). The denominator that is most common to these groups is the fact that many are lower-income, with few prospects for the future. From a Freirian theoretical perspective, the term "the oppressed" then refers primarily to the poor.

For instance, Mullaly reports that, "Critical pedagogy as first outlined by Paolo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed seeks to empower teachers and students with the critical skills necessary to bring about social change by developing a critical consciousness and a will to act in solidarity with the poor" (p. 58). Since its publication, Freire's ideas in the Pedagogy of the Oppressed have changed many of the prevailing concepts concerning literacy and the potential for individuals and communities to free themselves from oppression.

An overarching factor involved in this process is the need for people to become active participants rather than fence-sitters and actually take sides in a conflict and rationally defend their positions. From this perspective, simply remaining neutral concerning the important issues of the day is tantamount to oppression because it helps sustain the status quo and keeps the downtrodden down. Indeed, Adair emphasizes that, "Neutrality is violent and oppressive if it keeps people from thinking about and seeing their own position in society.

Because neutrality produces no change, in an unjust world being neutral is not neutral at all" (2008, p. 409). This point is also made by Free (2003) who cites the need for any oppression theory framework to assign accountability for maintaining the status quo to the detriment of the oppressed (read, minorities and poor people).

In this regard, Free emphasizes that a valid oppression theory framework is one that not only recognizes the fundamental inequities that exist within a society, it also "assigns culpability and responsibility for the correction of that historical inequality to those who created it in the first place and who continue to benefit from it today" (p. 259).

Although the people who created the system may not still be around to be held accountable for social inequities, it is reasonable to suggest that some demographic segment continues to benefit from them, otherwise they would have ceased to exist. In many Western democracies, those that continue to benefit from the oppression of others are those who are in positions of corporate and political power, but efforts to achieve restorative justice may be inadequate to mitigate these powerful social forces (Free, 2003).

For example, a salient real-world example of how oppression theory can adversely affect virtually any individual is the application of quota-based affirmative action programs that assign preferences to minority members who may be less qualified for a position or opening than a white candidate. Taken together, it is clear that coordinated action and education are needed to effect meaningful changes to reverse oppressive social systems, but the process requires time and even Freire acknowledged that there were limitations to what can be reasonably achieved in breaking down oppressive systems.

In this regard, Roberts (2000) reports that, "His pedagogy does not provide a panacea for oppression: Freire was always careful not to overestimate the potential of education for bringing about structural change".