The Study Of Education

Submitted By Temeka-Hawkins
Words: 725
Pages: 3

The study of education through the eye of two profound scholars
Mary T. Hawkins
North Central University

After reading the two articles of Paulo Freire and William Brickman. One is able to determine that although education is defined as a process of receiving or giving instruction. Freire and Brickman saw two different theories of how education should be taught and learned. Brickman a World War II veteran lived his entire life exploring comparative education thru travel, conferences and his academic community. Freire a native of Recife, Brazil encountered financial suffering at such a very young age in which cause Freire to look into education as a oppression. Both scholars shared similar struggles but yet different views of how education should be achieved.

Brickman a professor at NYU was able to contribute a great deal of his knowledge on comparative education. Not only did he educate but he also was a writer publishing twenty-nine books and an editor for School and Society. He felt that educators lacked the key concept which was the study of education abroad. “ Brickman was convinced that one could not engage in a true comparative study without the intimate knowledge of foreign languages and first hand familiarity with the political, economic and social context of the countries studied:”(European Education, vol. 42 no.2 2010 p20) .So he set out to arrange what was believed to be the first academic tour to Europe . Brickman was able to express his knowledge towards comparative education through his time as editor. “ For him editing was his foremost academic duty to advance academic freedom and integrity…….:”(European Education, vol. 42 no.2 2010 p29)

Paulo Freire who did not attribute as much as Brickman did, was still able to enlighten ones thought on education and its comparison to the reality of the world. According to him “ Real experiences has been replaced by words, and the words in turn have been emptied of their concreteness and become a hollow alienated, and alienating verbosity”(Flanagan, Frank M. Greatest Educator Ever. P187). He explains his theory with a concept of banking. This is describe as teachers playing the role of depositing while the student are labeled the depositories. However they can only take in what is given to them from their teachers. Freire also discussed freedom . He felt freedom was what we ourselves had to seek out for. “ Students can not achieve freedom through the agency of a system which disembowels them by alienating them from their own life experience”(Flanagan, Frank M. Greatest Educator Ever. P190).

Brickman and Freire both encountered resistance during the furthering of there research. Brickman was blamed for his conduct as editor on publications. He also had a debate with others that history and cultures should be the proper tool in research of comparative education while others believed it should be statistic