Publisher's foreword -- Introduction to the anniversary edition / Donaldo Macedo -- Foreword / Richard Shaull -- Preface -- 1. The justification for a pedagogy of the oppressed ; the contradiction between the oppressors and the oppressed, and how it is overcome ; oppression and the oppressors ; oppression and the oppressed ; liberation : not a gift, not a self-achievement, but a mutual process -- 2. The "banking" concept of education as an instrument of oppression--its presuppositions--a critique ; the problem-posing concept of education as an instrument for liberation--its presuppositions ; the "banking" concept and the teacher-student contradiction ; the problem-posing concept and the supersedence of the teacher-student contradiction ; education : a mutual process, world-mediated ; people as uncompleted beings, conscious of their incompletion, and their attempt to be more fully human -- 3. Dialogics--the essence of education as the practice of freedom ; dialogics and dialogue ; dialogue and the search for program content ; the human-world relationship, "generative themes," and the program content of education as the practice of freedom ; the investigation of "generative themes" and its methodology ; the awakening of critical consciousness through the investigation of "generative themes" ; the various stages of the investigation -- 4. Antidialogics and dialogics as matrices of opposing theories of cultural action : the former as an instrument of oppression and the latter as an instrument of liberation ; the theory of antidialogical action and its characteristics : conquest, divide and rule, manipulation, and cultural invasion ; the theory of dialogical action and its characteristics : cooperation, unity, organization, and cultural synthesis.

Includes bibliographical references.