PAULO FREIRE AND THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM – FROM THE DAILY PRACTICE OF STUDENTS TO OVERCOMING "BANKING EDUCATION"

Abstract

In the daily exercise of school practice, it is frequent that decisions are made without proper listening to the students. This distancing implies the imminent risk that the content worked in the classroom is disconnected from the reality experienced by the subjects. This disconnection is aggravated by a hierarchical relationship between educator and student, often marked by the unilateral transmission of knowledge, as if students were mere "deposits" in which educators deposit their ideas. Although this practice is not always intentional, it reflects and reproduces forces of domination widely present in the daily life of Brazilian society. In view of this reality, the following central question arises: in a society as heterogeneous as the Brazilian one, how to implement a school curriculum that dialogues with the desires and needs of the students? To reflect on this challenge, we took as a theoretical axis the work "Pedagogy of the Oppressed", by Paulo Freire, as well as authors such as Mészáros (2002), Frigotto (2010), Saviani (2011), Tonet (2016) and Laval (2019), authors who contribute to the understanding of emancipatory educational practice. In this sense, we discuss the importance of considering the daily experiences of students as a starting point to overcome school curricula that are alien to their realities and sociocultural contexts. Methodologically, we adopted a qualitative approach based on Minayo (2007), based on a bibliographic and descriptive research according to the studies of Gil (2008). In addition, we used the analytical-comprehensive bias with the theoretical support of Weber (1969). The results indicate that the disconnection between the school curriculum and the reality of the students harms teaching-learning, perpetuating inequalities and asymmetric power relations. Decontextualized curricula devalue students' experiences, while pedagogical practices that incorporate their realities promote greater engagement and critical autonomy, aligning with Paulo Freire's proposal of dialogic education. For this, it is necessary to break with banking pedagogy and train teachers for critical and contextualized methodologies, ensuring an inclusive curriculum that fosters both learning and social transformation.