Authentically Learning YOU: Creating Knowledge Together to Transform the World

Paulo Freire Interview

What if we were eager to understand others’ perspectives and truly willing to listen to them instead of impatiently waiting to get our point across? 

                    The classroom would be different. 

                    The workplace would be different. 

                    Our communities would be different. 

                    Our world would be different. 

                    Life would be different.

According to Paulo Freire in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, “true generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity. False charity constrains the fearful and subdued, the ‘rejects of life’, to extend their trembling hands. True generosity lies in striving so that these hands – whether of individuals or entire peoples – need be extended less and less in supplication, so that more and more they become human hands which work and, working, transform the world.” (p. 45) 

Instead of seeing people as objects we need to control, we must have a mindset transformation. This transformation results in seeing people as actual human beings with hearts, minds, feelings and emotions just as everyone else. Allowing everyone to have and own their unique perspective while simultaneously understanding no one’s view point is better than another’s.

Freire begins a revolution in the way teachers run a classroom. Teaching is no longer the teacher simply imparting information to their students; now knowledge is co-created between both the teachers and students allowing the students to have a voice in how they learn. Freire believes knowledge is not within someone, it is in the discussion. Dialogue opens the door for students to learn and grow together while not placing anyone above another. This is also a process. This is a journey each person walks out in order to “transform the world” (p. 45). The teachers and students work together to build upon their knowledge collectively. Each person is becoming who they are meant to be. We are in the process of learning who we are authentically; therefore allowing us to understand the authenticity of others. This understanding helps us from limiting others perspectives because it is different from what we know. It diminishes the idea of false charity and gives life to true generosity. 

STORY TIME: Considering I have not many years of experience teaching, I tend to relate what we are learning to the corporate world and sometimes to the nonprofit organizations I have been involved with. Beyond These Shores (BTS) is an organization I have worked with for many years which I feel generates some of these principles Freire believes throughout many different community projects around the world. One specific project BTS founded is a micro-finance project. The micro-finance project sends a team of specific individuals into some of the most poverty stricken areas around the world, while partnering with local businesses, to invest a loan into someone to help them start a business that will produce a sustaining income for their family over time. This project does not go into these areas to simply say “Here is $10, go get a meal.” This project demonstrates exactly what I believe Freire was stating when he said these individuals and groups of people should not have to keep asking for help, we should be creating avenues for these people to work with us to change the way they not only live, but also the mindset in which they have thought. The best part about this project is most people who have gone to these areas to help always come back with a different perspective on people and live than they had when they left. Typically the team would feel as if they are doing a good deed, which Freire may say is contributing to the oppression. However, in the case of this organization and the teams I have personally spent time speaking with, the dialogue among the team and the people is what changes mindsets and in turn allows each person to create knowledge together in order to implement change in the world.

#authenticallylearningyou

Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Bloomsbury.