Though the roots of critical theory go back much further and lie in various fields of study, Max Horkheimer, a German philosopher-sociologist and member of the ‘Frankfurt School’ of social research, is often credited for first ‘defining’ critical theory (1937). And in the fourth section, I will discuss some of the criticisms of his pedagogical model and conclude. Having surveyed these, in section three we will look at Freire’s model for the liberation of the oppressed: some of the key elements of his pedagogy, content and methods expectations from a teacher-student etc. Freire believed that any attempt to construct a theory of action with the oppressed must involve a serious and sincere attempt to understand the realities of their daily lives, therefore, in next section I will turn to some of the things that often characterize the oppressed and the oppressor consciousness. As critical pedagogy is based on the tenets of critical theory, I’ll start with a brief discussion on the latter. And a media article recently asserted that “Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed is timeless – as pertinent to the revolution in the Middle East now as to those in South America decades ago.” Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the OppressedĬonsidering the significant popularity and influence of Freire’s works, I have presented below a summary and review of Pedagogy of the Oppressed – arguably, his most famous book.

“His thinking” it has been claimed, “continues to be rediscovered by generations of teachers, scholars, community activists and cultural workers in Europe and the Americas”, and his books “continues to be read, debated and discussed all over the world by progressive educators”.

His book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, termed a “classic” and “a seminal work”, has been translated into numerous languages and has sold over 1 million copies and as per a study of 16 top schools of education in the US, was one of the most frequently assigned texts in their philosophy of education courses. He has been called “the Rousseau of the 20th century” (Bhattacharya 2008: 101), “the John Dewey of the present era” (Kanpol 1997: 13) and “the most important educator” (Carnoy 2004: 7) of the second half of the 20th century”.

Pedagogy of the oppressed book