Study And Inspiration From The Ideology Of Freire's Liberating Education

Paulo Freire, the famous Brazilian educationalist reputed as "Dewey in Latin American", is one of the most significant educational thinkers in the past half century. He experienced by himself the poorness and pungency of the oppressed, and deeply discerned that the oppression not only alienated man and distorted human nature, but hindered and restrained the perfecting procedure of humanity as well. Aiming at the domesticating education, which was used by the oppressors to train the oppressed to adapt the reality, Freire put forward his famous ideology of liberating education. This ideology not only provides enlightenment for the oppressed in the subordinate positions in the world, but also supplies us a firmly theoretical means to criticize and reflect the educational theory and practice in now days.The purpose of Freire's liberating education is to foster man's critical ideas and abilities to critically contact and reform the world such that humanities of both the oppressors and the oppressed can be realized at last. The themes of liberating education are listed in the following. Firstly, the relationship between the oppressors and the oppressed is dialectic. The oppressors regard all the things as matter, including the oppressed, and thus hinder the human natures of the oppressed from being perfect. This makes both of them be inhuman. Secondly, in order to maintain their ruling, the oppressors apply domesticating education to the oppressed. It is necessary to use the liberating education to eliminate the inhuman environment, and such kind of education can only be leaded by the awakening oppressed with critical eyes. Thirdly, liberating education may be realized by dialogue. Establishing dialogic relationship needs love, modesty, trust and hope. Dialogue is an educational relation on the same level, and it is an important way to realize liberating education. Fourthly, conscientization is an important part of liberating education. A man cognizes his own circumstance by knowing how to name the world, and he approaches the liberation by this cognizance. Naming the world itself is one kind of liberation.The ideology of Freire's liberating education still has meaningful value for us today. It provides theoretical foundation and practical enlightenment for subjective teaching, dialogic...