From Healing to Depoliticization: A Freirean Critique of Experiential Learning in Equine-Assisted Education

Abstract

Equine-assisted education (EAE) is often presented as an experience for helping children develop emotionally through contact with horses. This theoretical paper proposes a Freirean critique of the main discourse in equine-assisted education. Although EAE often employs language that appeals to people's sense of experience, most of the current research has not connected therapeutic practice with Dewey's democratic ideals and Freire's structural critique of oppression. Many EAE programs present trauma as a personal problem, organise private recovery activities, and use horses for therapy in a relatively apolitical setting. Therefore, the structure may be regarded as "therapeutic depoliticisation"; that is to say, it provides emotional support but does not address poverty, institutional neglect and structural violence. Freire's idea of "banking education" does not promote the development of critical consciousness; therefore, this paper studies whether EAE has moved from educating for social transformation to educating for social adaptation. Then it puts forward a problem-posing, interspecies model of EAE that connects individual healing with critical reflection on power, inequality and social justice.