Abstract:
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to establish the effect of Educating the individual for Critical Consciousness: a Freirean critique To Education Theory and Practice in Kenya
Methodology: The study adopted a desktop literature research design. Desk research is not about collecting data. Instead, is to review previous research findings to gain a broad understanding of the field. Books and journals will be used to collect information. To identify the right journals and books several keywords such as Educating the individual, Critical Consciousness: a Freirean critique, Education Theory and Practice was searched in google.
Results: A critical education overcomes massification by developing critical consciousness in individuals. This form of education is experiential in nature, being born out of an analytic consideration of an individual’s existential experiences. It ought to be rooted in the cultural milieu of the learner, that is, one’s actual reality and identity. The educated ought to perceive their society and culture as a subject (not an object) with which they enter into a critical dialogue. An education program that continuously produces learners who view themselves as being foreign to their own culture and society fails both its learners as well as the society. Due to its lack of the critical aspect, it undermines the creative potential of its learners. Such citizens, however educated they may claim to be, cannot integrate themselves with their society. They only adapt to situations and circumstances. Hence, they cannot cause any positive change either in their lives or that of the nation.
Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The study recommended that through a proper quality education, a transition to individual freedom always remains inevitable; oppressed people will one day rise and express themselves. It is the central role of education to liberate and empower individuals. This precisely is what an educational program that promotes individual development is meant to effect in the learner; namely, to create a critical consciousness in an individual, a consciousness that ultimately ignites a continuous dialectic transition of both individuals and the society at large.