Pedagogy of the Oppressed: Chapter 3 Review

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1

Chapter 3 is an investigation into human dialogue. The primary object of investigation is authenticity, which fosters mutual understanding and collective action. Freire expands his methodology of generative themes introduced in the previous chapter to critique acts of communication which marginalize oppressed voices. Identifying what makes dialogue authentic continues the narration of empowerment amongst the oppressed. Dialogue is not treated as mere communication, but an emergence of critical reflection with collective action, a political praxis. Rooted in humanism, emphasizing the inherent individual potential endowed by human existence, Freire describes in this chapter the psychological tactics used in dialogue and introduces its inversion, antidialogue, to navigate social interactions and their connection to an unjust social order dominating their worldview. The political praxis Freire describes is an intervention against the banking model of education and a promotion of a state of self-transcendence. The notion of salvation becomes a politicized myth Freire dismantles in Chapter 3 and ties together previous themes such as consciousness raising, dialectics, and generative themes to 'de-ideologize' reality (borrowing from Martin-Baro).

The role of investigating and witnessing are introduced in this chapter to aid in objectifying reality. Freire was professionally a lawyer prior to committing to adult education and these legal concepts are used as pedagogical tools to position the reader in a framework beyond their personal views of reality. Early on in the chapter we are introduced to the concept of an epoch: "a complex of ideas, concepts, hopes, doubts, values, and challenges in dialectical interaction with their opposites, striving towards plentitude". Epochs stress the dynamism between individuals, social institutions, and the ideas that connect them. We will return to epochs and codification later as the material in the chapter turns instructional briefly to belabor how to co-operate with the oppressed.

Recall that in political exile, Freire and other political dissidents endured regime change from the American backed military along with the harassment that comes before and after. Seeing this foreign intervention play out and attempt to legitimize itself after 1964 encapsulates what Freire refers to as cultural invasion in order to maintain control of power. Bringing the court in to session, I surmise in this chapter Freire's interrogation into the concept of the social contract. It is not directly stated, yet it is an epoch in itself that Freire deliberates over throughout the book. By investigating into the social contract all of the generated (past tense) themes from the 64' coup can be brought into spotlight; dehumanization, illiteracy, labor organizing, education, freedom, and so on. Let's get into the chapter material further with a little hermeneutics.

Naming the world

I grew up with white Jesus. Compared to all of the depictions of Christ, whom as a Palestinian was certainly not of European descent and certainly did not look like one, white Jesus is probably the most common depiction of him found throughout the world due to colonization. Part of the legacy of the European colonies is the ability to to recognize the contradiction between what Jesus looked like as a tool to manipulate core beliefs (the image of god in reflection of the colonizers). Indeed, there are more accurate representations rendered in artwork of what he would look like found throughout the immediate region, yet the image of Christ that made it to the shores of European colonies were of a blue eyed, white skinned, long neatly combed haired, ideal of a man (and plenty of weapons). And people internalized this inauthentic image of Christ deep within their psyche.

There is no true word that is not at the same time a praxis. Thus, to speak a true word is to transform the world.

It is instructive to start with this allegory of imagery as it reveals what Freire describes as the constitutive elements of dialogue, reflection and action. An inauthentic word (image), as Freire suggests, is unable to transform reality. An inauthentic word is dichotomized, word comma action rather than an authentic praxis of word plus action. The separation is significant for our mental radars to detect bullshit, Freire establishes the "empty verbalism" communicated without the combined elements suffers from its lack of commitment to action. Likewise, when there is action without reflection, activism (action for action's sake), praxis is negated. Freire observes this point by stating "Either dichotomy, by creating unauthentic forms of existence, creates also unauthentic forms of thought, which reinforce the original dichotomy."

Circling back to the opening of John, it accurately explains the felt transcendence of authenticity between the believer and their spiritual belief. To be aware of this dichotomy and to recognize when someone (teacher, priest, politician, etc.) is manipulating you, gives us leverage to overcome suffering because our awareness between the relationship of the word and action becomes clearer, more purposeful. Freire stresses the word as an existential link between individual purpose and the limit-situation they live through, "Human beings are not built in silence, but in word, in work, in action-reflection." Hence, when we begin "naming" the world through action (the cognitive association of assigning meaning) plus reflection (analyzing the prerequisites for authentic dialogue) our perception of the world changes. The act of silencing your expression is the denial of naming the world, as this act is one of mutual creation.

The Six Pre-Reqs of Authentic Dialogue

The bulk of the first part of the chapter sequences six points of authentic dialogue; love, humility, faith in human potential, and trust between participants. Freire defines dialogue as "the encounter between men, mediated by the world, in order to name the world." To quickly define the six points and then explore the chapter context further. These six points demonstrate dialectical contradictions which facilitates the "rules against" partnered dialogue:

• Love is the commitment to other's humanity.
• Humility rejects superiority complexes.
• Faith is the belief in people's capacity to create change.
• Trust is the confidence in shared goals and integrity.
• Hope in the pursuit of humanization.
• Critical thinking to overcome ignorance.

The pathology of love: Freire elaborates on love being the foundation of dialogue, where the process of naming the world is also one of creation. Love and its contrast, domination, act as poles between sadomasochism (of the oppressor/oppressed ontology) and one of freedom (with commitment to others in pursuit of liberation). Dialogue cannot happen with those who preface domination, Freire continues "Only by abolishing the situation of oppression is it possible to restore the love which that situation made impossible. If I do not love the world—if I do not love life—if I do not love people—I cannot enter into dialogue." Love is infused in part of our social interactions and stands in counter to the tactics of manipulation that 'love bombs' for favoring the oppressor.

The presence of humility: Describing Freire's exploration of humility includes a series of self-reflective questions that interrogate participating in dialogue. Because this series of questions are instructive to Self-reflection and dispelling arrogance, it should be read in full (paragraph 9) to grasp the cultural programming that is critiqued. In its wisdom, in domination we can encounter each others ego asserting its ignorance to dominate the conversation, in dialogue we encounter ego-estranged people attempting together to learn more than they know now. When humility is absent, people can not co-create (name) the world, cannot be partners, and see themselves superior in the encounter.

Faith in humankind: Two abstractions that Pedagogy starts with is an individuals nature towards action and the capacity to overcome oppressive social conditioning. Our ability to make and remake the world and the vocation to be more fully human is dependent on faith. Faith in people is not equivalent to faith in a god, but an a priori pursuit in humanization towards the concept of a "dialogical man", which the six point ethical framework we are in discussion with emerges. Borrowing the language of theology familiarizes the spiritual practice with worldly affairs, encouraging people to join in the struggle towards collective liberation over alienation, otherwise attempts at dialogue become paternalistic manipulation described in the previous chapter.

Trust, but verify: If faith in others in dialogue is a priori, trust is a posteriori, "it cannot exist if that (other) party's words do not coincide with their actions." Trust is mutually established through love, humility, and faith. Following the rule that any contradiction in one is a contradiction in all, these three pre-requisites of dialogue create an elevated foundation for trust. Take away one of the pillars (trusting without love, without humility, without faith) creates no trust at all. In the banking model, trust is absent and yet the aforementioned pre-reqs (love, humility, and faith) are manipulated according to the banking-clerk educators needs.

Hope in search of truth: With four well established requisites, one cannot despair and carry out dialogue. The fatalism described in the opening chapters description of an oppressive society results in the hollowing out of individuals, continuing the banking/empty vessel metaphor. Indeed, it is a dehumanizing world and "crossing ones arms and waiting (for change)" is acting on despair rather than hope. Hope is consistent with being in communion with others and pursuing humanity in active exploration of the world. Without hope, we begin to see the false generosity within peoples actions as 'empty, sterile, bureaucratic and tedious'. Through exploration we act on hope as an activity towards humanization denied by injustice experienced in the world.

Continuity of critical thinking: Thinking is an active process of transforming the world and is the foundation of education. We are able to resolve contradictions by engaging in the process of critical thinking and analyze the naive thinkers thought process that keeps them stuck in the contradiction. Critical thinking allows us to weigh the past and future to reconcile present actions, where present actions are in the continuous process of transformation of the world and humanization. Contrasted with the naive thinker, the world is fixated and static with the expectations of people acting 'well-behaved' to fit their perception of reality. Only dialogue can generate critical thinking and continue its liberating effects in dialogue with others as practices of freedom.

Putting it all together, dialogue is constituted of six pre-requisites that facilitate educational development between participants. These requisites are helpful to analyze social interactions like the teacher-student-classroom scenario, workplace, religious group, family, and so on to gauge people's state of conscious awareness. In this framework, there is room for mutual co-creation between participants by critiquing (in conversation) objects of study impinging on their world versus the dictation of educational content following a pre-determined curriculum. There is a desire to learn more in the former versus receiving what is offered 'for your benefit' in the latter. This will become abundantly clear when we dive into the next part of the chapter focusing on case examples of manipulation with propaganda.

Slogans of reality

Propaganda is communication used to influence a narrative or agenda in service of a group or ideology. It is a form of manipulation, often times done in coercion over cooperation, carrying the Word (or political activity) of dominant elites. These elites 'bank' concepts of the world they desire to live to 'submerge' your state of consciousness (awareness) to conform and fear freedom from this altered state. What gets poured into our minds is a viscous illusion of social control, molding itself within the oppressed, encasing itself to form a house of slogans. An oppressor would reveal themselves through leveraging this deformity as an opportunity to combat slogan versus slogan, "Make America Great Again" with "Hope, Change" (or other liberal campaign phrases), recognizing opportunities to mobilize the psychology of the oppressed masses. Humanization is the process of recognizing this dualistic dehumanized state of awareness alongside the activities of those who chose to communicate in such ways to exacerbate the situation with slogans as opposed to directly liberating one from a "stuck" position.

Ejecting these slogans of reality deposited by dominant elites is the self-reflective task of any revolutionary, wanting to organize the oppressed, to become aware of their actions turning to cultural invasion of the people they mean well to organize. Leaders who are positioned to lead must attune themselves with the oppressed and communicate effectively with a felt understanding of the language, habits, and social structure that reaches into each others humanity.  Without starting from a blank slate, political education "must be the present, existential, concrete situation, reflecting the aspirations of the people", separated from desires of the revolutionary leadership yet compelled towards action over intellectualizing. Popular (amongst the oppressed) education programs must reflect the limit situations of the oppressed to bring their preoccupations, doubts, hopes, and fears into the program content to manifest transformative action.

Generative Themes

Freire recognizes the need for a pedagogical tool which mediates people, problems, and program into an investigative field of dialogue which education and practice of freedom unfolds. This dialogical investigation has a twofold purpose, to discover generative themes and 'stimulate people's awareness' in regards to those themes. The objectives of investigation in which generative themes are created are what Freire refers to as the "thought-language" with which people refer to reality, the levels of perception (in relation to reality), and their view of the world. Generative themes come into existence as we apprehend objective facts from experienced reality, following the activity of reflecting upon the human-world or human-human relationship and 'naming' our experience. Generative themes are contained within limit-situations, the tasks within are limit-acts. Progressing further with applying generative themes, in describing the 'dialectical movement' exchanged between people, Freire suggests the encoding and decoding of messaging occurs. Last, the tasks within limit-acts are in essence an investigation of meaningful thematics test feasible solutions.

Only human beings are in praxis, unlike animals, who do not reflect (or demonstrate meta-cognition) over their actions. Humans are beings-in-process and make decisions in the "here" and "now" in context of their limit situation. Humans not only produce goods (going beyond tool usage), but they also produce "social institutions, ideas, and concepts". We can build a school to offer a lecture on groups of fish called schools, and we continue the notion of education across space and time to evolve social institutions into the foundation of culture. History is crystallized within time, but also of what Freire describes as 'epochs', "a complex of ideas, concepts, hopes, doubts, values, and challenges in dialectical interaction with their opposites, striving towards plenitude." Epochs serve as the "stage" for which generative themes play out, creating what Freire describes as a thematic universe to confront dialectical contradictions and unveil the myths of the world. With this framework, it provides exposure to the possibilities of transformative action or the fearful maintenance of the status quo.

Describing how to instruct on generative themes includes the usage of concentric circles characterizing the epoch of the time, one of domination and its opposite of liberation. Freire provides more contextual details borrowed from his literacy workshops in applying this tool, describing the relationships within relationships one as a rural peasant in Brazil may have in relation to graduating circles of organized polities such as a town, province, nation, continent, etc. Within these circles are a variety of applications of generative themes, narration within the struggles, to bring to light felt experience that submerges our consciousness in a dominated thematic universe, acquiring more depth of understanding as we progress in investigation.

Workshop on Self-Inquiry

In all the stages of decoding, people exteriorize their view of the world. And in the way they think about and face the world— fatalistically, dynamically, or statically—their generative themes may be found.

Freire's intention is to build a coded description of the situation that you must confront. Generative themes acts as teachable gestalt to decipher messaging of coded existential moments, moments where you find yourself in the aforementioned limit situation and must perform limit-acts. Once this limit situation is presented, it becomes a challenge that must be met with honesty or an anxious reaction towards silence. An interesting perspective on the form of absence is drawn from investigating generative themes, Freire suggests that "the theme of silence suggests a structure of mutism in face of the overwhelming force of the limit-situations." Investigating into generative themes is also an investigation into a persons level of thinking and rather than reinforcing a hierarchy like teacher to student, Freire encourages people to be co-investigators into generative themes and attune towards limit-actions.

Rather than an intrusion into someones personal worldview, co-investigating expresses and connects unique themes amongst people and their relation to the world striving towards self-awareness. Emerging from a submerge conscious state implies an intervention in reality. Freire reminds us that conscientização (critical consciousness) is the "deepening of the attitude of awareness characteristic of all emergence". There is a balance of perspectives that avoids focalizing (or narrowly outlining) views of reality, which does not allow you to comprehend the totality of a situation but only parts of it defeating the purpose of meaningful investigation. The educational content is remixed or refreshed to "re-present" a thematic universe. An additional consideration is overly programming the investigation by following itineraries that mislead activities towards a fixed result, disabling the complex transformative process of becoming and invalidating scientific objectivity. As people are beings-in-process or are in limit situations, investigation is limited in time and space in order to overcome the present "situationality" that challenges us.

In this part of the chapter, Freire begins a case example that covers several paragraphs reiterating and producing observations from popular education workshops. The summary of this section exemplifies the individual tasks of the investigator(s) decoding stages of their life for certain critical moments and register the vocabulary used throughout the workshop. Freire defines role play between investigators and alongside nominal community members like family, friends, and immediate community. From these workshop meetings progressive evaluation of the decoding process are brought into reflection to analyze the participants level of awareness.

Codification of Capital

Part of the investigative process concentrates on conscious awareness. Freire cites two distinctions made by Lucien Goldman on real and potential forms of consciousness, which should be notably separate from previous lessons on consciousness as a metaphysical concept. A quick detour from Pedagogy to add further context to Freire's description of concentric circles, the obvious link to SolarPunk Sangha's usage of the Circles of Sustainability method fits perfectly into this methodology. Politics, Economics, Culture, and Ecology make up four domains of Sustainability and within it, 6-7 subdomains each that organize related activity and objects for topic analysis. An additional criteria for generative themes within the four domains of Sustainability may include alternative forms of capital that are closely related to each domain. Codification of forms of capital is an application of Karl Marx's reification of social attributes (Grundrisse) and his vampiric forms of Constant and Variable capital relating to labor and the means of production (Capital 1, Chapter 10). I derived three forms of capital in each domain to align with Freire's approach to generative themes for self-inquiry listed below, a more detailed explanation will be available in the Epistemology module related to the Tesseract model.

• Politics
  • Political - Credibility & Reputation
  • Informational - Shared & Leveraged Knowledge
  • Organizational - Systemic & Capabilities
• Economics
  • Natural - Planetary Resources
  • Physical - Land & Tools
  • Worker - Labor Transforming Capital
• Culture
  • Symbolic - Socially Generated Illusions
  • Field - Social Environs
  • Disposition - Socially Conditioned Responses
• Ecology
  • Biological - Anatomy & Physiology
  • Personhood - Autonomy & Relatedness
  • Agency - Emancipation & Enlightenment

Returning to Pedagogy, Freire begins to describe a psychological development in perception through the discovery of background awareness interconnecting past and present dimensions of knowledge (re: Epistemology and Tesseract). By providing a case study of field research applying generative themes authored by Gabriel Bode, Freire highlights workshop activities that contribute to the decoding process, like taped recording playbacks of the investigation session. Part of the interplay between participants is challenging each others contributions in the session with problem-posing methodologies to reveal 'existential situations' when they would otherwise not be expressed under different circumstances. Freire then describes the last stage in the investigative process through interdisciplinary study of their findings with relatable classifications from fields of political science, psychology, anthropology, and so on. Once everyone compares results, the creation of a 'nuclei of findings' can be extracted and hinged together, such as developing a culture based on media (photos, videos, music, etc.) observations and critiques.

Modern Adaptations to Investigations

While reading through the text, it is important to understand the time period from which this style of analysis emerged. Freire is describing first the essential knowledge that is intended to be extracted from investigation and second the methodology as if you were in the classroom in the 1960s. Schools did not have as many educational instruments to assist with instruction such as televisions, internet, or the vast educational toys sold at retail stores. Of course they were not deprived of technology of the time, yet as Freire describes in his instruction, it is important for participants to understand the media they are consuming, whether it is a single photograph or reading magazines as a group. Deideologizing reality is a cognitive process which involves adapting to the 'didactic materials' that are prepared around us and in context of a workshop, what others prepare to bring to the investigation.

Freire dedicates a large portion of Chapter 3 to this investigative process and the considerations observed from previous workshops. The motivator behind these investigations is to co-create knowledge and participate in cultural circles that examine social concepts like nationalism, literacy, and education. How these cultural circles engage with thematic materials should act on this motivation in classroom or workshop settings. In the critical pedagogy academic field, classroom experiments rely on these investigative principles to get children to think critically. For example, the orientation and arrangement of desks in a classroom demonstrates power-orientation, where in a large lecture hall, the teacher is the center of attention with total alignment facing them. In contrast, teachers can choose to arrange their desks in circles, allowing students to face each other and the teacher at different angles to then shift their focus on the local tasks arranged in front of them. The list of examples that compare banking and problem-posing models of education can be applied outside of the classroom, hence the Finance Model that takes into account the totality of program content available for analysis.

Because of the internet, program content can be limitless, hence there is a need to improve Freire's methodology using the Circles of Sustainability method previous mentioned. Like any engineering process, there is room for improvement based on feedback, inserting the Circles method into the Chapter analysis provides a concrete example of Freire's thematic investigation inspired from this text. This Circles methodology as previously mentioned acts as an information architecture for program content, where a variety of forms and types of capital can be critiqued through other teaching tools like the Tetrad mentioned in previous lessons. Just as the Circles method is one application to this theory, there are other schools of thought that exist to adapt thematic representations to the participants. As I am somewhat 'married' to this methodology, the children would be the library and all of the types of media contained in each subdomain to utilize shared instruments like YouTube, Spotify, Airtable, and so on to curate educational content. With that in mind to explore on your own, we are going to explore Chapter 4 in great detail as it will discuss dialogue and antidialogue with eight variations to cover. The last chapter will conclude the book review, but we will use chapter 3 as a bookmark for upcoming lessons on investigative workshops.

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