Education Is Liberation

The presented thesis is focused on Paulo Freire's thoughts on "Education is Liberation". Freire thinks education is firstly the liberation of politics. Freire declares that all the educational activities are covered with the hue of politics, which is his best contribution to the field of education. He holds that only the democratization of politics is realized, can the democratization of education be reached. Therefore, the problem in one's country that should firstly be solved is the problem of political liberation.Secondly, education is the liberation of culture. Freire puts forward the concept of "silent culture", meaning that the dominator prescribes the right of speaking through controlling the schools and other organizations to silence and isolate the voice of the people. Under this condition, Freire regards the tasks of a educator as not only to teach people how to read and write, but also to name the world with the words they have learned, to rebuild the relationship with the society and thus develop a critical consciousness, and emerge from the submerged situation.Thirdly, education is the liberation of teaching and learning. Against the traditional banking education, in which the teacher "deposit" and the students are "empty vessels" to be filled, Freire brings forward "liberating education", which advocating communication between the teachers and students. While banking education kills our creativity and critical consciousness, thus domesticate the students, liberating education opposes unilateral knowledge transferring, and through learning together, the knowledge is always in the process of "forming" and creating. Dialogue becomes the important teaching process. Through critical dialogue, the thoughts of the teachers and students are tested, and they begin to understand the world they know not before, so they can recognize the challenges of the reality and transform it actively.Finally, education is the liberation of human being. The whole educational thoughts of Freire are based on his idea about "humanization". He pays much attention on the value of human being, holding that the ideal of one is to be humanized or becoming more fully human. If one wants to be freed, he must develop a critical consciousness, breaking away from the former oppressed consciousness. But how to develop such a consciousness? Freire thinks that only education can achieve the goal. It can help people realize the dynamic relationship between the consciousness and the reality and as a result, people can take part in the reforming activities critically. The whole thesis is divided into seven parts apart from the introduction and the epilogue. The first chapter introduces the beginning and developing of Freire's thoughts and the origin of his educational thoughts. Chapter Two, Three and Four are the keystones of the thesis, bringing forward the whole liberating educational system. Chapter Two discusses the oppressed pedagogy, in which Freire proposes that education be politics, and the liberation of consciousness is the main task of this stage, and then, through political action, cultural action and educating action, the task of the first stage-- to transform the oppressed society can be realized; Chapter Three is about pedagogy of hope.Freire explains to us his philosophy on hope and hopes to realize democratic education through the liberation of teaching and learning. In this chapter, Freire also gives us some judgments on thedemocratic teachers. In Chapter Four, Freire puts forward his most ideal education -- pedagogy offreedom, in which Freire explores the true meaning of "human being" and "freedom". Freire regards pedagogy of freedom as humanized education, through which the liberation of human being can be finally reached. Chapter Five introduces Freire's liberating educational practices, including the literal education in Brazil and other countries, and also his democratic educational reforms after he returns to Brazil. Chapter Six briefly comments on Freire's thoughts and practices, analyzing and evaluating his great original ideas and his weakness. Chapter Seven mainly discusses the practical significances of Freire's liberating educational thoughts. What's on earth his revelation on our educational reforms? For example, what's the starting point of education? How to use "conscientization" to develop people's critical consciousness? What's the difference between Freire's "dialogue" and that of our daily use, and what's the use for reference? We advocate that education should return to our life, but why Freire advocates that education should intervene society? What enlightenment does it give us? The presented thesis is going to discuss them one by one.