Frequently Asked Questions

Paulo Freire argued that traditional education systems often reproduce and reinforce oppressive power dynamics by treating students as passive receivers of information rather than active agents of their own learning. He argued that education should instead be focused on empowering students to critically analyze and challenge the world around them and to work towards creating a more just and equitable society. ​ ​Overall, Freire's concept of critical consciousness emphasizes the importance of empowering individuals to think deeply and critically about the world around them and to use that knowledge to effect positive change.

Strategy 1: Connect class content to sociopolitical issues. This involves positioning students to use the knowledge and skills of your content area to examine unequal power relationships and the roots of injustice. Strategy 2: Make the familiar seem strange. This involves identifying and critically analyzing hidden assumptions, values or power structures in familiar things. Students should also identify assumptions or beliefs in familiar ideas.

Activity 1: Create opportunities for students to research and discuss social problems. Activity 2: Conceptualize the idea of “citizenship” with students as using oneʻs knowledge to to diminish the suffering of others. Activity 3: Identify and critically analyze power structures such as school policies, pop culture, and current events. Activity 4: Identify and analyze the origins of assumptions or beliefs in meritocracy, color-blindness, and traditional gender roles Ask students to consider where these assumptions and beliefs come from and how they serve to benefit or oppress people.