Banking Concept of Education

Paulo Freire (1921–97), a Brazilian educator, philosopher, and critical theorist, coined the phrase banking concept of education in an essay of the same name published in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Freire proposed that the traditional form of education is like banking: the teacher makes deposits into the students (the accounts). Freire contended that because education reflects the political reality of a society, it plays out the power relationships within society, and this teacher-centered style of education serves to maintain the status quo and to oppress the less powerful and the powerless. He contrasted this type of education to problem posing, which is student centered. He proposed that in order for the power differential to be equalized, problem-posing education should be implemented. This type ...