On the Epistemology of Freire's Pedagogy

This paper serves as an analysis of Freires pedagogy from a philosophical perspective, illustrating how knowledge is acquired in pedagogy and relating pedagogy back to its philosophical sources. This paper is structured into four sessions: 1. an overview of Freires pedagogy; 2. an epistemological analysis on pedagogy; 3. Freires epistemological materialism; 4. the philosophical source of Freires pedagogy. The first session is a brief introduction to pedagogy, clarifying what problems pedagogy is trying to solve and how pedagogy addresses these problems. The second session fits pedagogy into a broader philosophical context, explaining how it is possible to acquire knowledge within pedagogy and what type of knowledge is acquired. A division of knowing how and knowing that is introduced in this session, ending with the conclusion that knowing how is more emphasized in pedagogy and that knowledge in Freires view, has a broader meaning than merely accumulating facts. The last two sessions focus on where pedagogy is derived from and how this context determines pedagogys framework and limitations. This session demonstrates that dialectical materialism and Marx are inevitable when discussing Freires pedagogy, displaying how important concepts in pedagogy arise from dialectical materialism and Marx, and figuring out where pedagogy goes beyond these philosophical backgrounds.