Celebrating its fortieth year of publication in English, Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed reminds us that education provides insight about the critical role of education within politics. For the purposes of contributing to the theory and practice of public administration, our intention in this essay is to draw upon Freire's description of education 1 outlined in his seminal work as it relates to opportunities to educate public administration leadership about participatory dialogue, deliberation, and humanization through conflict. With this goal in mind, we reflect on Freire's notion of education as being consistent with the practices and philosophy traditionally associated with community-oriented mediation. Such a perspective is a lens through which to name critical requisites for leadership to strengthen the living, learning, and laboring experience within the workplace of the public sphere. The relevance of community mediation and its parallels to political education based on Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed offers a reinvigoration of ideals for public sector agency leadership at many levels. The connections presented also demonstrate the promise of education that can help leaders as they face today's challenges in decision making, risk taking, and uncertainty. We will also suggest some tools and highlight systems currently being used within the public administration realm that can serve the ends of both theoretical and practical learning.In current Western market-driven societies, there is a strong need for education in civic engagement, reflection, dialogue, contemplation, and responsibility. These topics of a more politicized education are imperative to counterbalance the skill-depositing process of traditional education, which prepares students for one purpose: entering mass-market-driven, alienating societies (Arendt
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