POPULAR EDUCATION

“BANKING” METHOD SEES PARTICIPANTS AS EMPTY VESSELS THAT MUST BE FILLED WITH INFORMATION ENCOURAGES DEPENDENCY

POPULAR EDUCATION SEES PARTICIPANTS AS SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE REAL WORLD ENCOURAGES PEOPLE TO DEVELOP THEIR KNOWLEDGE AND USE IT TO TAKE ACTION TO CHANGE THEIR SITUATION

Paulo Freire (1921 - 1997)

KEY PRINCIPLES NO EDUCATION IS EVER NEUTRAL. It either maintains the status quo or it changes an existing situation. Education is either domesticating or liberating.

KEY PRINCIPLES EDUCATION MUST BE RELEVANT. It must be about issues of importance NOW to participants. It should cover “hot issues”.

KEY PRINCIPLES EDUCATION MUST BE PROBLEM- POSING. Participants are recognized as thinking, creative people with capacity for action. Education is seen as a common search for solutions to problems.

KEY PRINCIPLES EDUCATION MUST BE A PROCESS OF DIALOGUE. Dialogue involves respect. It should not involve one person giving knowledge to another, but rather people working with each other.

KEY PRINCIPLES EDUCATION MUST LEAD TO ACTION. Dialogue as a co- operative activity must strengthen the community and lead it to collective action. There must be a continuing reflection-action cycle.

KEY PRINCIPLES EDUCATION MUST LEAD TO CHANGE. It must start with conscientization and eventually lead to transformation.

KEY PRINCIPLES EVERYONE TEACHES AND EVERYONE LEARNS IN A COLLECTIVE PROCESS OF CREATING NEW KNOWLEDGE.

PROCESS START WITH THE PEOPLE’S OWN EXPERIENCES MOVE FROM EXPERIENCE TO ANALYSIS MOVE FROM ANALYSIS TO COLLECTIVE ACTION TO CHANGE THE SITUATION REFLECT AND EVALUATE

FRAMEWORK CONTEXT – the participants’ perspective, their life story CONTENT – the consciousness rasing and conscientization objective METHOD – provocative, participatory, dialogical, collective

TECHNIQUES PROBLEM POSING / SOLVING PARTICIPATORY DIALOGICAL EXPERIENTIAL COLLECTIVE CREATIVE

POPULAR EDUCATION empowerment