40
of the banking model of education.
In this model, educators assume students enter classrooms as
empty vessels devoid of previous knowledge or experience. The banking model assumes
students are empty vessels for teachers to fill with knowledge. The underlying assumption in this
model is the students are passive receptacles who rarely contribute their own thoughts as the
teacher is actively inculcating knowledge for the students to soak up. In his argument for using a
critical pedagogy, Freire (1970) proposed
that in a liberatory classroom, both teachers and
students bring in skills, experiences, and valuable insights. In this type of classrooms, teachers
and students engage in “reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it” (Freire,
1970, p. 33), a process he called praxis. According to Freire,
in this critical pedagogy, teachers
and students engage in reflection and action to help the oppressed understand the broader
systemic structures in society that perpetuate inequality and injustice.
Students who develop a consciousness of historical, social, political,
and economic
policies, norms, and values that have shaped and determined their place in society become truly
empowered and are likely to become agents of change in their communities (Freire, 1970). Freire
(1970) affirmed, “To exist, humanly, is to name the world, to change it. Once named, the world
in its turn reappears to the namers as a problem and requires of them a new naming. Humans are
not built in silence,
but in word, in work, in action-reflection” (p. 88). Educators seeking to
promote critical consciousness and decolonize education should find critical pedagogy praxis
helpful in their classrooms and beyond
.
