Yet, although they desire authentic existence, they fear it. They discover that without freedom they cannot exist authentically. The oppressed suffer from the duality which has established itself in their innermost being. Abbreviations PoP Pedagogy of the Oppressed The pedagogy of the oppressed is an instrument for their critical discovery that both they and their oppressors are manifestations of dehumanization. As long as they live in the duality in which to be is to be like, and to be like is to be like the oppressor, this contribution is impossible. The central problem is this: How can the oppressed, as divided, unauthentic beings, participate in developing the pedagogy of their liberation? Only as they discover themselves to be 'hosts' of the oppressor can they contribute to the midwifery of their liberating pedagogy. And in the struggle this pedagogy will be made and remade. This pedagogy makes oppression and its causes objects of reflection by the oppressed, and from that reflection will come their necessary engagement in the struggle for their liberation. This book will present some aspects of what the writer has termed the pedagogy of the oppressed, a pedagogy which must be forged with, not for, the oppressed (whether individuals or peoples) in the incessant struggle to regain their humanity. This is the tragic dilemma of the oppressed which their education must take into account.

They are at one and the same time themselves and the oppressor whose consciousness they have internalized The conflict lies in the choice between being wholly themselves or being divided between ejecting the oppressor within or not ejecting them between human solidarity or alienation between following prescriptions or having choices between being spectators or actors between acting or having the illusion of acting through the action of the oppressors between speaking out or being silent, castrated in their power to create and recreate, in their power to transform the world.

Pedagogy of the oppressed book