26-12
DIFFERENT LEVELS OR STAGES OF AWARENESS
Why is it that so many people “just don’t
seem to care” about changing or improving
their situation?
What can I do to help people awaken to their
own possibilities?
To help health workers answer these questions, it may be useful to discuss the
following ‘stages of awareness’. These are based on the ideas of Paulo Freire, the
Brazilian educator. Freire’s methods for the development of ‘critical awareness’
became widely used in Brazil as a part of literacy programs (for learning to read and
write). After the military coup in 1964. however, Freire was jailed and later thrown out
of the country. Freire describes 3 main stages of awareness:
1. Magic awareness. At This stage, people explain the events and forces that
shape their lives in terms o’ myths, magic, or powers beyond their under standing
and control. They tend to be fatalistic, passively accepting whatever happens
to them as late or ‘God’s will’. Usually they blame no one for the hardships and
abuses they suffer. They endure these as facts of life about which they cannot (and
should not) do anything. Although their problems are great—poor health, poverty,
lack of work, etc.—they commonly deny them. They are exploited, but are at the
same time dependent upon those with authority or power, whom they fear and try
to please. They conform to the image of themselves given to them by those on top.
They consider themselves inferior, unable to master the skills and ideas of persons
they believe are ‘better’ than themselves.
2. Naive awareness. A person who is naive has incomplete understanding.
Persons at the naive stage of awareness no longer passively accept the hardships
of being ‘on the bottom’. Rather, they try to adapt so as to make the best of the
situation in which they find themselves. However, they continue to accept the
values, rules, and social order defined by those on top (authorities, big landholders,
etc.). In fact, they try to imitate those on top as much as possible. For example,
they may adopt the clothing, hair styles, and language of outsiders, or choose to
bottle feed rather than breast feed their babies. At the same time, they tend to
reject or look down upon their own people’s customs and beliefs. Like those on
top, they blame the hardships of the poor on their ignorance and ‘lack of ambition’.
They make no attempt to critically examine or change the social order.
3. Critical awareness. As persons begin to develop critical awareness, they
look more carefully at the causes of poverty and other human problems. They
try to explain things more through observation and reason than through myth or
magic. They start to question the values, rules, and expectations passed down by
those in control. They discover that not individuals, but the social system itself,
is responsible tor inequality, injustice, and suffering. They find that it is set up to
favor the few at the expense of the many, yet they see that those in power are
in some ways also weak, and are also ‘dehumanized’ by the system. Critically
aware persons come to realize that only by changing the norms and procedures
of organized society can the most serious ills of both the rich and the poor be
corrected.
As their awareness deepens, these persons also begin to feel better about
themselves. They take new pride in their origins and traditions. Yet they are self-
critical and flexible. They do not reject either the old or the new, but try to preserve
from each what is of value. As their self-confidence grows, they begin to work with
others to change what is unhealthy in the social system. Their observations and
critical reasoning lead them to positive action.