Banking and Dialogue

Paulo Freire was a Brazilian educator whose book Pedagogy of the Oppressed appeared in 1968. He described a common style of teaching as banking: the teacher deposits facts into learners, who are treated as empty accounts that receive, store and repeat.

He set against it problem-posing education, in which teacher and learners ask questions about the world they live in, and each learns from the other. He thought that this kind of dialogue helps people see the conditions that shape their lives, and so act to change them.

Freire is one of several Latin American thinkers who tied philosophy to the lives of ordinary people. His simple test is useful: does your teaching treat the other person as an equal who knows things, or as a container?

The river lesson

A teacher in a river village plans a lesson on water. In the first week she lectures on rainfall and drainage, and the children copy it. The next week she asks, “Where does our water come from, and who decides when it is cut?”

The children describe the pump, the cost, and a broken pipe near the school. The class writes to the council together. The teacher says the second week taught her as much as it taught them.

Try this today Next time you explain something, start with a question to the learner, and use their answer.