ABSTRACT

One cannot expect positive results from an educational program which fails to respect the particular view of the world held by the people. Such a program constitutes cultural invasion, good intentions notwithstanding

—Freire (1993, p. 76)

Freirean theory calls clearly for a stance of inquiry on the part of the teacher, inquiry driven by the need to understand the world from the learners’ perspective. And this need to “get inside the learners’ heads and hearts” is itself driven by the imperative for mutual respect and dialogue between the students and the teacher, the dialectical opposite of a banking approach to teaching-learning. Dialogue, according to Freire, is not a mere tactic to involve students. Rather, it is an epistemological necessity; it is a way of knowing, a way that acknowledges the social character of knowledge building (Freire & Macedo, 1995).