Principles of Paulo Freire's problematizing pedagogy

Conceptions of the teachers of a higher education institution in Mozambique

Abstract

The aim of this work is to present the understanding of higher education teachers regarding the importance of problematizing pedagogy. The study adopts a qualitative-quantitative approach conducted with 27 teachers from a private institution of higher education in the province of Maputo, Mozambique. This is the number of teachers who agreed to participate in the survey and completed the self-administered assessment tool. The study used intentional and non-probabilistic sampling, as it was not possible to survey all the teachers at the institution. Therefore, an attempt was made to select a subset of the population that, based on available information, could be considered representative of the entire population. Research data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire, and the results were presented in a frequency table and Spearman's correlation test inference. It is innovative to consider Spearman correlation parameters to investigate the strength of the relationship between pedagogical principles variables. Higher education is an excellent place for the transmission of knowledge and social values that bring about changes in the student. In this context, the teacher goes beyond the vision of a simple content transmitter and task executor, adopting a progressive educational system. From the correlation performed between the "importance of problematizing teaching" versus "having heard of problematizing teaching" versus "the student has the right to contribute their knowledge," difficulties stemming from the prevalence of the banking system become apparent. This system views the student as merely an empty vessel to be filled. It can be observed that Problem-Based Learning (PBL) methodology requires the need to overlay reality and practice, which raises a set of implications when implementing it in the classroom. Once the correlation between the "importance of problem-based teaching" vs. "having heard of problem-based teaching" vs. "the student has the right to contribute their knowledge" is conducted, it can be seen that the majority of surveyed teachers have heard of the problem-based system to a satisfactory extent, although not complete because there is still a minority that has not heard of it. This points to the prevalence of the banking education system within the institution, which sees the student as an empty receptacle (Freire, 2001a).

However, the recommendation is that despite all the challenges, there should be a demand for the problematization of higher education institutions, creating conditions for student-teacher interaction and the community from which they both emerge. This should be seen as a cornerstone for building quality scientific knowledge and fulfilling the objectives of the 2030 Agenda.