We are in need of each other. Paulo Freire and the role of conflicts in education

Abstract

This paper re-examines the key text Pedagogy of the Oppressed in order to gain an understanding of the nature, valuation and pedagogical use of conflict as perceived by Paulo Freire. I found that conflicts are at the very heart of Freire’s educational philosophy and educational practice. Oppressive domination, whether through conquest, divide and rule, manipulation or cultural invasion, entails contradictions which are the core elements for understanding social injustice and inequality. Traditional (banking or deposit) education serves mainly as a continuation of this painful situation instead of helping to change it. Liberation through problem-posing education is able to change the oppressive situation towards a more humanised society. Struggle and fight are necessary to liberate and educate the people and change the oppressing reality. The concept of conflict is dialectical by nature and Freire recognises the importance and educational power of contradictions, yet strives to surmount the contradictions by changing the great power imbalance in social reality towards a more balanced, humanised reality. The valuation of conflict is such that it becomes the very content of liberating and transformative education in ‘generative themes’ uncovering ‘limit-situations’. Limit situations always contain contradictions. The paper ends with a few lessons learned to reconsider and reinvent the teaching of the conflicts in education in a new way. Among these lessons is the awareness that contradictions are not incompatible incongruities which are irreconcilable and mutually exclusive, but in need of each other (hence the title); that transformative changes create feelings of anxiety and fear in people; that people might not want to be liberated, and arguably not in the way educators want; that education has two contradictory tasks, that is socialisation and liberation at the same time; and finally that a transformative pedagogy needs to include the oppressor’s voice and position, an oppressor that is seen not as an enemy but as an opponent. Together they form a unity.