프레이리의 ‘프락시스’와 『페다고지』의 현재적 의미에 관한 고찰

Abstract

The 1968 publication of Freire's “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” is one of the most widely read classics in the field of education. For a work to be considered a classic and be passed down to future generations as a product of human thought, its universality must extend beyond the specificities of its time and place, and have a universal influence. While the universality of a classic can be encountered by the different “nows” and “heres” to create new creations, the specificity of the “then” and “there” can stubbornly persist. The goal of this study is to examine the contemporary meaning of Freire's “praxis” and “Pedagogy of the Oppressed.” Through an examination of the various interpretations of the meaning of “praxis” as understood by different philosophers and thinkers, I discover that it was Arendt who first introduced the concept of reflective praxis, and Freire combines reflection and awakening in his usage of “praxis.” Additionally, I confirm that “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” has been interpreted as having different temporal meanings in three different periods of South Korea's history (1979, 2002, and 2018). In 1979, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” was used as a consciousness-raising textbook for anti-dictatorship democratization movements, while in 2002 it was mainly interpreted in terms of acceptance or rejection of neoliberal education. The contemporary meaning of “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” in 2018 is to discover the true usefulness of education, which has become one of many specializations in our increasingly complex modern society.