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Paulo Freire Reading Group

Chapter 3 Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Session 2 (February 18th 2013) A small selection of notes from discussion

Encoding Decoding Key ideas from text

Codes

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Problems (limit situations)

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Social situation

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Elements

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Juxtaposition

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Creating media

Viewing situation

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Structured conversation:

Objective

Reflective

Interpretive

Decisional

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Representing & dialogue around issues

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Learning/action projectsl

What do we need to know more about and/or

do in order to tackle the issues raised?

- Perception of

previous perceptions

- Conscious of

unconscious

- Feasibility of

action

- Action changes

consciousness

Input from Stan Reeves (retired CLD worker and worker with ALP for 33 years

since its formation in 1979). A selection of notes:

Introduction

Interested in the power and potency of photography and powerful images

Decoding about stopping the world and looking very, very, very closely On average humans currently look at images for 1/3 second. Here one image

can act as a stimulation for 3 weeks of work, not 1/3 of a second.

This aspect of Freire coding and decoding, is one of the rare very

methodological and practical approaches written about but rarely covered in

the literature or commentaries.

We are in the age of the autodidact where people are teaching themselves

that should be our aspiration.

Code quite simply is the reducing of a large amount of information into a small

amount of information through distilling it into its essence.

Decoding an intellectual activity it is a struggle to apprehend the code. In

the unpacking of a code you apprehend and put yourself in the situation you are

unpacking you therefore connect with the story.

Tutor end point is to give up control of the agenda, the fundamental point and

role being to engage and inspire others and encourage curiosity and interest in

the topic and issues

Encoding

Problems: Example of current social problemsof de-industrialisation- ending in

redundancy. If that's the problem, then where is that? Go there and record

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that problem, and meet those people

Social Situation: Identify and go to that social situation and talk to the

people about how it feels to be in that situation and start to take notes and

take photos and gather information and evidence.

Elements: Make notes on all the different issues and elements of the situation

e.g. who is in the workforce, what is the process, where are the materialsfrom, who owns the place, where is it, etc.

Juxtaposition: Putting together all the different elements. E.g. take 40

different photos of different elements, then later on select the one that is

the richest and has the most stuff.

Creating media: Use of still image can be a very powerful resource. Dangers of

using the moving image very difficult and warned against because so much to

discuss, and also dangers of 'zombificiation' that we are used to in front of

the moving image. Example of how to counter that:

ALP would show films at 5pm after being made about local themes and afterwork. These were accompanied with a questionnaire given out to all

watching. There was some food after the film and then people split into

groups after to have a structured conversation about the films using the

questionnaire to answer the question; 'How have we been colonised'?

Decoding

Viewing situation

Creating a situation for dialogue e.g. a trip to the cinema to take what you

can out of that resource.

The richness comes not from the codes but from the viewing of the code.

It's in uncovering contradictions that we find the energy and power to change.

Ensure that people can all see and talk to each other create a environment

conducive for dialogue.

Structured Conversation & Dialogue

The need for structure otherwise people will go off on all kinds of tangents,

and may discuss very different interpretations of the same image. Not to be

over-structured. Structure the process not the content. Developed a structure that echoes the cognitive development of reason and

psychology of the human being.

Jung consciousness of the unconscious. Until you are aware of your

unconscious you call it fate.

This is about bring the unconscious to the fore to examine and expose it

Objective what you see, describe, no interpretation

Reflective look at those object and reflect on them and how people might

feel about them

Interpretative Of the scene/image and what might be happening or happenand why

Decisional what could we do to act or change that

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Learning/action projects:

Freirean education about discovering problems and making decisions

Educator's role is to ask the group 'right, what are we going to do about this

then'?

Then you set the learning/action program

Problems are limit situations and therefore opportunities Our job as educators is not to have an agenda but to get people talking about

things and think about them. E.g. ALP had both a anti- and pro- Poll Taxcampaigning group during the Thatcher Years.

General discussion (a selection of notes):

What are the difficulties of putting this into practice?

What about hidden messages in a picture or mis-interpretations of what is in

the picture? How will that shape or affect the process?

When you introduce a code you are already pushing a certain point ofview...should you do this or avoid this, or how to deal with this?

Highlight a difference between perceptions, and between needs and desires

How do you deal with racist or sexist responses to codes for example?

What are the key questions you would ask?

Where did that idea come from? What facts do you have to back that up?

Key responsibility in education to steer the discussion

Encoding often helps to set the pre-agenda to this setting

Different in post-literacy world to a pre-literacy world. In post-literacy people

are less likely to need intervention or worker of an educator, and less likely to

engage in decoding process.

Decisional stage should involve a 'minimal common agreement'.

What if interpretations go completely off the topic you intended to discuss, or

are too vague: To arrive at the session you need an intent and usually a presupposed reason

and eagerness from participants attending to discuss an issue and make a

difference on that issue.

What are the significant moments in a community? Ask people in the area present back as sites of possibility.

Use some very local codes, and other more general ones, so as to move from

the local to the global

Codifications are not slogans - Codes can be over didactic and manipulative.

The best ones are the ones most open to interpretation and least obvious and

clear and biased.

Sorry if anything important has been missed off. Please let me know if so or add to

the online forum.

Will Golding