SUPAG Insights November 2024

AN ENGAGEMENT OF PAULO FREIRE’S CRITICAL PEDAGOGY AND JEAN PIAGET’S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN THE LEARNING PROCESS

LJ ZAPHAN B. LAMBOLOTO

ABSTRACT

           Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy is potent in developing a critically conscious individual. In achieving a critical consciousness, the human is exposed to the hidden and veiled realities of domination implicit in the social and political world. For Freire, following the logic of the critical theory, liberation and social transformation could only be possible if the individual breaks free from the false consciousness induced by the ideological apparatuses of the oppressor. In other words, the “subjective factor”, that is, the subjective consciousness of the individual, must be realigned with the objective reality and undo the shackles of subservience. However, the nature of Freire’s work - The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, deals with the political and sociological implications of domesticating educational and political practice. I argue that to concretize the vision of critical awareness, a conceptual or theoretical tool that considers the role of cognition in the essential process of consciousness is vital. In this manner, I appropriate Jean Piaget’s cognitive development theory to trace the learning process's early stages. Though Piaget comprehensively covers the journey of human consciousness and its development, I believe these steps and stages of development hold valuable lessons for critical pedagogy.

Keywords: critical pedagogy, epistemological curiosity, cognitive development, critical consciousness, learning process