26-35
THE SPECIAL LANGUAGE OF ‘CONSCIENTIZATION’-A
TOOL OR A TRAP?
Education for critical awareness requires clear
communication between persons as equals. Yet it has
become one of the fields most muddied by language few
people can understand.
This contradiction between method and language goes
back to Paulo Freire himself. A frustrated health worker
in Africa who had tried to read Freire’s Pedagogy* of the Oppressed recently
protested, “How can anyone who thinks so clearly write so badly)”
Unfortunately, the language that surrounds Freire’s ideas prevents many
community leaders with limited schooling from being able to learn from and
use his methods. It also has led to a sort of ‘cult’ in which the use of terms like
‘dehumanization’, ‘thematic universe’, ‘transforming the world’, and even ‘liberation’
actually prevents others from understanding the ideas.
In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire states that, “Many participants during
these debates affirm happily and self-confidently that they are not being shown
anything new, just remembering . . .” He gives this example:
“ ‘I know that I am cultured,’ an elderly peasant said
emphatically. And when he was asked how it was That he
knew himself to be cultured, he answered with the same
emphasis, ‘Because I work, and working. I transform the
world.’ “
Frankly, we would be more convinced that the old peasant was ‘just
remembering’ if he had expressed his new feeling of self-worth in his own words
and not in Freire’s. After all the purpose of conscientization is not to transform
peasants into parrots!
And yet it seems to have turned many highly educated ‘followers’ into parrots as
well. We have seen educators who have been completely unable to communicate
with groups of villagers. Why? Because they were more concerned with getting
across concepts such as ‘the world of culture’ than with helping people explore
their own situation in their own words.
For example, one educator carried out a study on the ‘level of consciousness’
of highland Indians in Ecuador. One question he asked them was, “What are the
most dehumanizing problems in your life now?” He reported that persons at the
‘magic’ level of consciousness often responded with ‘problem denial’—meaning
they either said nothing or denied that they had any problems. It does not seem
to have occurred to the educator that the persons may not have understood the
concept of ‘dehumanization’. Or if they did, they may not have liked having the
term applied to themselves. ‘Problem denial’ may, at least in part, be a problem of
communication—or, in this case, well-justified distrust.
In any case, the tendency of educators to impose their ‘mysterious language’
on people has further blurred the distinction between consciousness raising and
brainwashing. We encourage anyone who uses Freire’s methods to look at them
critically. Learn from Freire’s wisdom. But, for everyone’s sake, avoid his language!
*Pedagogy: educational method