from Training for Transformation: A Handbook for Community Workers

The most important ideas underlying Paulo Freire’s work are fairly easy to understand by those who have been involved in the struggle to change an unjust situation. These principles have had a profound influence on our understanding of development education. In Latin America, the Philippines and South Africa, this is known as "popular education." "Popular education" is a community effort to acquire existing knowledge and build the new knowledge to reshape society, so that all will have the opportunity to a full life.

Education aims at radical transformation

We are called upon to transform

our own personal lives

our community

our environment

the whole society

For the poor of the world, "the way things are" is not satisfactory, and it is not the only way they can bee. Transformative education is based on the HOPE that it is possible to change life for the better. It must be based on the vision of a new, more just society.

"Radical" means going to the roots. The cause of much of the unnecessary suffering in the modern world lies deep in the values which influence modern western industrial ‘"civilization". This "civilization" now influences most of the rest of the world. These dominant "values" (or vices" include greed and control for material possessions and power over people and things.

To transform society we need to tap into much deeper values of cooperatin, justice and "concern for the common good". Catholic and other Christian social teachings, and the social teachings of other faiths such as Judaism, Buddhism and Islam, constantly challenge us to live according to these values, which are essential aspects of love. This is why transformative education is essentially a spiritual process.

The process of transformation includes both action and reflection Development and education are not separate processes, but two sides of the same coin.

"Popular education" is not just an individualistic academic exercise like much traditional western education in which people try to obtain high qualifications for themselves.

"Popular education" recognizes the energy and potential within each person and each community, and tries to empower them to make their full contribution to the process of building a new society in which it is possible for all people to meet their fundamental human needs.

Relevance and empowerment
Everybody thinks the education they provide is relevant, but who decides what is relevant t a particular community? Many have stressed that the community themselves must choose the issues which are central in their education and development programs. Paulo Freire has taken this concept much deeper, by pointing out the link between emotion and motivation to act.

Much education has tried to ignore human feelings and concentrated only on reason and actions. But Freire recognizes that emotions play a crucial role in transformation. Feelings are facts. Only by starting with the issues on which the community have strong feelings – hope, fear, worry, anger, joy, sorrow – and bringing these to the surface, will we break through the deadening sense of apathy and powerlessness which paralyzes the poor in many places.

Apathy is not a natural condition for human beings. It is natural for all people to strive to meet their human needs. Only when their efforts to do so have been blocked again and again, do they sink into apathy.

The role of the animator is to help people find new hope as they tap into their natural energy and break through this apathy together.

Paulo Freire calls the issues that generate this natural energy and hope "generative themes". In order to base a program solidly on these themes, it is necessary to begin with a listening survey....

Some issues are discussed freely and are at the surface within a community, such as the closing of a clinic or shortage of jobs. Other themes are raging beneath the surface ut are kept "silent" out of fear or taboos (like sexual abuse, incest, alcoholism, or the AIDS epidemic). Suppressed feelings contribute to a sense of powerlessness and apathy but if we tap into them, people can unearth new life for themselves and others. Channeling that energy into strategic plans for action is another challenge.

Dialogue
Dialogue is crucial in every aspect of participatory learning, and in the whole process of transformation. The challenge to build a just society, based on equality, is very complex. We have learnt to believe that there are experts who have all the knowledge we need to know For years traditional education has been seen as a process of passing on information, from one "person who knows" (the teacher) to others "who do not know" (the pupils). Paulo Freire refers to this process as "banking" education, as the teacher makes regular deposits in the empty mind of the pupil. It has also been described as pouring water from a ful jug into an empty glass, or compared to filling an empty car tank with petrol.

Now we find that, on a great many issues, the so-called "experts" have been wrong. This is particularly so in the field of development, where again and again the advice of outside "experts" has led to greater poverty. There is a new awareness now, that on all the major problems that face the modern world, no experts have all the answers. Each may have valuable information to contribute, but we need dialogue to draw in the insights of all who are concerned as we search for solutions. Local participation is crucial for effective development.

From babyhood onwards, dialogue is the main way in which we develop our capacity to think and make judgments. Without a mother’s effort to dialogue with her child, the baby does not develop. Research has shown that people learn, remember and apply far more of the things that they learn in dialogue with their peers, than the things they hear in lectures from experts.

There is of course a role for information from those who have special knowledge or experience. However, a group is far more likely to absorb and benefit from this if the program is started with dialogue, which brings to the surface all the latent questions in their minds. A relevant input will then challenge them to deeper thinking and further dialogue.

Dialogue requires patience, humility and a real belief that there is something that one can learn from the other person. It requires an openness to new information, a willingness to be challenged and a deep hope that change is possible.

The role of the animator is to create a climate in which true dialogue can take place. For this she/he needs an understanding of group dynamics and group leadership skills....

Problem-posing: the search for solutions
The animator helps the group go as deeply as possible into the root cause of the problem, and then challenges them to find solutions, sometimes offering alternatives used in other groups. Ths reflection on the problems lays the groundwork for effective action planning. The role of the animator throughout the process is not to give the answers, but to set up a process through which the group can search for the answers themselves in a systematic way.