Every person can critically perceive reality given dialogical tools

Evidence

Coupled with this is Freire’s conviction (now supported by a wide background of experience) that every human being, no matter how “ignorant” or submerged in the “culture of silence” he or she may be, is capable of looking critically at the world in a dialogical encounter with others. Provided with the proper tools for such encounter, the individual can gradually perceive personal and social reality as well as the contradictions in it, become conscious of his or her own perception of that reality, and deal critically with it. In this process, the old, paternalistic teacher-student relationship is overcome. A peasant can facilitate this process for a neighbor more effectively than a “teacher” brought in from outside. “People educate each other through the mediation of the world.” — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 67

Categorization

• XREF: The insider-facilitator claim (‘peasant can facilitate better than outside teacher’) resonates with the reader’s concern about the facilitator who already knows the correct consciousness — the seeds of the vanguard critique. — connects to: Naming the world through dialogue renders fixed reality into a transformable problem. — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 547
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how does Freire reconcile ‘a peasant facilitates better than an outside teacher’ with the trained facilitator role problem-posing later demands?