Education, Development, and Capabilities

Appropriating Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed to Challenge Contemporary

Abstract

This paper argues that a deeper appreciation of the philosophical nature of oppression is required in our age of globalization, science and technology, particularly for rethinking educational systems aimed at social justice, equality and liberation in developing countries. It draws on the inspiring concepts of Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which itself is indebted to the philosophical innovation of the philosopher Hegel. The aim of the article is to outline various ways to analyze the requirements for critical consciousness to rise given the dialectical contradiction of scientific and technological progress on the one hand and new forms of alienation that arise from anonymity and the dissolution of the self on the other. At stake is how we understand the process and ends of ‘sustainable development’ to achieve greater inclusion and social justice in a multicultural, pluralistic and intrinsically heterogeneous globalized world.