The article contributes to the academic discussion on Paulo Freire’s pedagogical thinking as a basis for reinventing contemporary non-formal education. In Finland, Freire’s transformational/liberatory theory of adult learning was applied as a framework for developing an adult educational model called Life Skills for All. The pilot project’s case studies were carried out with different groups of people during the model’s development phase. We describe these cases and discuss what can be learned from them for offering basic and life skills (...) education for adult groups at risk of social disenfranchisement. Our case study analysis highlights some new practices and challenges based on the model’s different applications. We argue that even for basic capacity building of employment skills, it is essential to develop a non-instrumental, holistic, and societal educational approach. Elements for such an approach can be derived from both the Nordic and Freirean traditions of adult education. Also, we suggest that the Life Skills for All model benefits learners’ agency and empowerment by putting the learner at the center, combining the learning of different basic skills, and emphasizing the central role of the local community in participants’ learning activities. (shrink)

In several enigmatic passages, Paulo Freire describes the pedagogy of the oppressed as a ‘pedagogy of laughter’. The inclusion of laughter alongside problem‐posing dialogue might strike some as ambiguous, considering that the global exploitation of the poor is no laughing matter. And yet, laughter seems to be an important aspect of the pedagogy of the oppressed. In this paper, I examine the role of laughter in Freire's critical pedagogy through a series of questions: Are (...) all forms of laughter equally emancipatory? Certainly a revolutionary pedagogue can laugh, but should he or she, and what are the political (if not revolutionary) implications of this laughter? In order to shed new light on Freire's fleeting yet provocative comments, I turn to Jacques Rancière for his emphasis on the aesthetics of politics, and Paulo Virno who connects joke telling with critical theory. Overall, I argue that we need to take Freire's gesture toward a pedagogy of laughter seriously in order to understand the aesthetics of critical pedagogy and the fundamental need for a redistribution of the sensible that underlies educational relations between masters and pupils. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Make'em Laugh, Make'em Laugh, Make'em Laugh! The Laughing Consciousness Laughing: No Laughing Matter The Joke of Critical Theory Lights Please! References.

This paper is a conceptual analysis in methodology. The purpose it fulfils is that of analysing the critical and dialogic pedagogy of Paulo Freire, to arrive at implications of Freire’s philosophy...

Paulo Freire's major work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, owes adebt to psychoanalysis. In particular, as this paper argues,Freire's account of teacher authority needs to be understoodthrough psychoanalytic sensibilities. Paulo Freire maintains thatteacher authority can be ``on the side of freedom.'' This is ahighly charged claim given that liberalist traditions generallycast authority as the enemy of freedom. Breaking with liberalunderstandings of authority, Freire's ``authority on the sideof freedom'' is a matter of maintaining the delicate psychicbalance (...) that leads neither to domination nor to submission.This paper investigates how such an authoritative balance functions. (shrink)

Often when I am teaching philosophy of education, my students begin the process of inquiry by prefacing their questions with something along the lines of "I'm just curious, but . . . ." Why do we feel compelled as teachers and as students to express our curiosity as just curiosity? Perhaps there is a slight embarrassment in proclaiming our curiosity, which, in its strongest formulation, appears to be too assertive, too aggressive, or too inappropriate to speak in public in front (...) of others. In this sense, curiosity is itself problematic, something to be slightly ashamed of. Or are we afraid that our teachers and our classmates will think that our questions are motivated by something more than mere curiosity? The .. (shrink)

"Mentoring the Mentor" recreates a Freirian dialogue in a printed format. In this volume, sixteen distinguished scholars engage in a critical and thoughtful exchange with Paulo Freire. While some contributors voice appreciation for Freire's ideas and for what it means to -reinvent Freire- in a North American context, others offer sharp critiques of Freire's philosophy and, of equal importance, of the various interpretations of his work. A variety of chapters describe specific uses which have been made of (...) Freire's ideas in diverse educational contexts, from the New York City public schools to the revolutions in Guinea Bissau and Eritrea. Finally, Paulo Freire himself responds to the major issues which are raised in the volume and invites readers to share in a continuing lively dialogue about the meaning of democratic and revolutionary education. -The fundamental task of the mentor is a liberatory task. It is not to encourage the mentor's goals and aspirations and dreams to be reproduced in the mentees, the students, but to give rise to the possibility that the students become the owners of their own history. This is how I understand the need that teachers have to transcend their merely instructive task and to assume the ethical posture of a mentor who truly believes in the total autonomy, freedom, and development of those he or she mentors.- (from Chapter Sixteen, -A Response- by Paulo Freire)". (shrink)

This book provides a fresh perspective on the work of the influential educationist, Paulo Freire. The author emphasizes both the coherence and the dynamism in Freire's thought, with some consistent core concepts, but also a strong commitment to ongoing reflection and development. The book includes a detailed overview of Freire's biography, major publications, and key ideas, but also adds a distinctive voice to existing conversations in the new comparisons it makes with other writers and thinkers, its Freirean (...) analysis of policy developments and pedagogical relationships at the tertiary level, and its consideration of ethical and educational questions in light of lessons from literature. The Freirean virtues of openness, humility, tolerance, trust, and rigor are found to be highly relevant to today's world. The hope is that this book will provide a number of avenues for further inquiry in the future, while also addressing educational questions and themes of interest to a wide range of scholars and practitioners in the present. (shrink)

This contribution to the special issue is an historical account of Paulo Freire’s pedagogical and administrative praxis before his forced exile in 1964. It relies on interviews collected during a field trip in 1976, a conversation with Paulo Freire in Geneva one year later and on the secondary literature up to date. Being the head of the first Extension Service of a major Brazilian university in the early 1960s gave Freire and his collaborators the space and time to (...) experiment with the today world famous literacy method bearing his name. The concept of ‘Field of Cultural Production’ (Bourdieu) is used to elucidate better Freire and his team’s avant-gardist production within the spaces opened up by Brazil’s popular movements in the early sixties. The contribution shows how the ‘Paulo Freire System’ developed in the praxis of a cultural movement and received its academic consecration in an incremental and eclectic style. (shrink)

A critique of Freire's thinking, the influence of his work and ways in which his theories may be developed into the future.

Whither the seminal thinking and practice of Paulo Freire in contemporary times? If Covid 19 is the most seismic health crisis in living memory, it is also just as much an unprecedented crisis for education and society. While Paulo Freire's work so often calls attention to the deprivations and exploitations suffered by the weakest in our society, at no stage does Freire's work succumb to a negativism or a pessimism about the possibilities of transformation. To the (...) contrary, Freire's work is always animated by a strong and fundamental affirmative spirit which calls on people to join together to make change, as opposed to simply waiting around for it to happen. This text on Freire's contemporary importance thus seems a timely intervention. Originally a conversation between engaged interlocutors at a University of Catania symposium, this discussion then broadens out to include connection to the particular rendering of these issues across different national and international contexts. Including essays by established and new thinkers in the Critical Pedagogy perspective, the book also includes up to date and exciting interviews with contemporary practitioners of Theatre of the Oppressed and related social-therapeutic approaches in Italy. (shrink)

Subtractive schooling is a type of pedagogy that subtracts from the student aspects of her identity in order to assimilate and reshape her identity to fit the American mainstream. Here, I question the value of assimilation as it takes place in our public school systems. Currently, immigrant children are often made to feel inadequate for being culturally different. This is detrimental to their development as students given that at their young age they do not yet have the emotional maturity (...) to know that their experience, language and culture are legitimate and valuable. My goal is to shift the focus of subtractive schooling to one that fosters the growth of students through recognition. I suggest that John Dewey’s and Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of recognition is a helpful approach to this problem. Both Dewey and Freire’s pedagogy emphasize recognition as central to their pedagogy. (shrink)

Paulo Freire : the educator, his oeuvre, and changing contexts -- Holistic interpretations of Freire's work : a critical review -- Critical literacy, praxis, and emancipatory politics -- "Remaining on the same side of the river" : neo-liberalism, party movements, and the struggle for greater coherence -- Reinventing Freire in a Southern context : the Mediterranean -- Engaging with practice : a Freirean reflection on different pedagogical sites.

This article presents a critique of Paulo Freire's philosophical perspective on human nature in the context of a doctoral research study to explore “muchness” or nurses’ subjective experience of well‐being; and demonstrates how this critique has informed the refinement of the theoretical principles used to inform research methodology and methods. Engaging in philosophical groundwork is essential for research coherence and integrity. Through this groundwork, largely informed by Freire's critical pedagogy and his ideas on humanization, I recognized (...) the need to clarify my understanding of the concepts of persons and personhood and how this related to Freire's use of the term human beings. This clarification process is essential to ensure congruence between the theoretical principles that I draw from his work and my beliefs about persons, personhood and person‐centredness. The article begins with a brief introduction to the research, followed by an overview of Freire's philosophical perspectives, and subsequently, the critique process is presented and discussed. This process involved engaging with the vast literature and debates about what it means to be a person, to make sense of the often complex and contradictory arguments. Eventually, three headings emerged that helped me to frame my evolving understanding: Our species: human beings; The kind that we are: human nature; and This person that I am: personhood. Through this process of exploration, I recognized that Freire's perspective on human nature (a) foregrounded cognitive rationality, which presented itself as a limitation when considering my ontological beliefs and the focus of my research, leading me to draw on the work of Mark Johnson and his ideas about embodiment to help me to further develop my theoretical principles; (b) focused on the “collective” rather than individuals, which is a shortcoming in relation to person‐centred research that acknowledges the uniqueness of participants. (shrink)

In this book, we come to understand the author's pedagogical thinking even better, through the critical seriousness, humanistic objectivity, and engaged ...

Upon its recent publication in Portuguese, Paulo Freire’s newest book became an instant success. This English translation is sure to meet with similar acclaim. In Teachers as Cultural Workers, Freire speaks directly to teachers about the lessons learned from a lifetime of experience as an educator and social theorist. No other book so cogently explains the implications for classroom practice of Freire’s latest ideas and the pathbreaking theories found in Pedagogy of the Oppressed and other treatises.This book challenges (...) all who teach to reflect critically on the meaning of the act of teaching as well as the meaning of learning. Freire shows why a teacher’s success depends on a permanent commitment to learning and training, as part of an ongoing appraisal of classroom practice. By observing the curiosity of students and the manner through which students develop strategies for learning, the teacher is helped in discovering doubts, successes, and the teacher’s mistakes. When teachers open themselves to recognize the different roads students take in order to learn, they will become involved in a continual reconstruction of their own paths of curiosity, opening the doors to habits of learning that will benefit everyone in the classroom. (shrink)

In this article I re-examine the role that aesthetics play in Paulo Freire's pedagogy of the oppressed. As opposed to the vast majority of scholarship in this area, I suggest that aesthetics play a more centralised role in pedagogy above and beyond arts-based curricula. To help clarify Freire's position, I will argue that underlying the linguistic resolution of the student/teacher dialectic in the problem-posing classroom is an accompanying shift in the very aesthetics of recognition. In (...) order to demonstrate the always already aesthetic nature of all education, I will turn to the aesthetic philosophy of Jacques Rancière. Through Rancière we can begin to understand how the pedagogy of the oppressed is predicated on an aesthetic redistribution of the sensible, of what can be seen and what can be heard. As Rancière will confirm, if we truly want to understand the aesthetics of pedagogy, we cannot simply see aesthetics as external to teaching and learning. Rather, education as an aesthetic event has to be taken seriously, and aesthetics should regain primacy in discussions of critical pedagogy. (shrink)

Jacob Neumann provides a thoughtful reading of Paulo Freire in the 21st century: Education, dialogue, and transformation. His comments on the importance of contextualising Freire’s work and the value of openness in engaging Freirean ideas are insightful and helpful. His use of the term ‘apolitical’ is, however, rather more problematic. Drawing on points made in Paulo Freire in the 21st century, and with links to Freire’s wider philosophy and pedagogy, this article argues that education from a Freirean (...) perspective is always political. (shrink)

This article presents the contributions of Paulo Freire to think about children's education. It breaks with a certain understanding that Freire would have been concerned only with the education of young people and adults. It is an essay that discusses the concept of child and childhood in Freire and the proposition of a pedagogy forged with children, a “girl” pedagogy.

In the article, we carry out a theoretical reflection on the contributions of Paulo Freire's pedagogy. Given the diversity of themes that Freire covers, we make a first approach to his pedagogical-political thought and for this we do it through a brief biographical journey through the main life stages of the author. The great Brazilian educator was a person who had a special concern for the other, for denouncing injustices and for showing us that human beings have (...) in our hands the possibilities of change and transformation. In order to address all these questions, according to Freire, it is necessary to do so from a critical reading of the world in which we live. To delve deeper and understand essential aspects of his life and also of his work, we do so with people close to the author who have had the opportunity to live and work with him and know, in depth, his pedagogical legacy. As a result of this journey through his pedagogical work, we offer some reflections that invite us to look at the validity and timeliness of his approaches. Freire's pedagogy proposes a critical reading of the world that does not generate hopelessness, but rather allows us to see the resistance, the ways to get ahead, the construction of the new, the permanent possibilities that human beings have to rebuild our lives. Freire spoke of hope as an inherent issue in teaching practice, remembering, at the same time, that change, although difficult, is possible. (shrink)

As Paulo Freire’s education theory for social change and emancipation is being continually studied and disseminated in East Asia, it has faced skepticism as some educators are unfamiliar with its critical pedagogy or education for freedom concepts. In light of this, scholars have attempted to compare Freirean philosophies with concepts in Chinese philosophy of education as a way of bridging East and West. Diverging from previous studies that use popular Chinese philosophies (such as Confucianism) to connect with Freirean (...) theory, this paper introduces an understudied but compatible Chinese philosophical thought, Mohism, for comparison with Freirean theory. Mohism is a political philosophy for the working class that expanded into grassroots movements for people’s welfare in ancient China. The Mohist bottom-up approach echoes the grassroots emancipatory pedagogy that underlies Freirean philosophy. A comparative analysis of education concepts in both philosophies reveals that despite differences in the educational content of Freirean theory and Mohism, there are similarities in their conceptualization of education for anti-oppression and praxis for social change. Implications for utilizing Mohist philosophy to contemplate Freirean philosophy within the East Asian educational context are also explored. Ultimately this paper revives educational concepts of Mohism that aligns with Freirean philosophy to a broader audience of scholars and educators. (shrink)

This article will discuss Paulo Freire’s global influences on environmental pedagogies and argue that ecopedagogical reinventions are essential for ‘quality’ education, as touted in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #4, for global, all-inclusive ‘development’ that is planetarily sustainable. The politics of how ‘development’ is taught or not taught to be critically read linguistically and dialogically will be problematized through Freire’s work, and reinventions of his work, on ecopedagogy. As Freire was a pedagogue of critical literacy, ecopedagogical literacy (...) widens ‘reading the word to read the world’ (all humans, human populations) to read Earth to read the world as part of Earth. Such reading is not anthropocentric. The article will first describe Freire’s influence on reinventing environmental pedagogies, including education for (un)sustainable development (ESD), with specific discussions on how language of ‘development’ and corresponding (un)sustainability is framed. These influences from Freire will then be discussed through his de/re/constructions of citizenship, utopia and education, and globalization. Throughout the article, I will argue the need for teaching ecopedagogical literacy with ecolinguistics is essential to better understand the politics of language and (non)hierarchical dialogue which influence how ‘development’ goals are constructed, including the SDGs. (shrink)

This paper is mainly a provisional survey of the engagement of the Filipinos with the thoughts of Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator and philosopher. It presents first the main tenets of Freire’s liberating pedagogy. Then, it explores the Filipinos’ engagement with his ideas. Then, it gives some observations on the said engagement. Finally, it suggests a possible way on how philosophical researches in the Philippines can continually appreciate the relevance of Freire’s liberating pedagogy especially in relating it (...) to a form of Filipino philosophy that is involved in a critique of the society. -/- Keywords: Freire, liberating pedagogy, Philippine education, Filipino philosophy. (shrink)

Paulo Freire is one of the century's great thinkers on education and the politics of liberation. Known mostly for his literacy campaigns in Latin America and Africa, and for his seminal work Pedagogy of the Oppressed, his thinking continues to be rediscovered by generations of teachers, scholars, community activists and cultural workers in Europe and North America. While his name is synonymous with the practice of Critical Literacy' and A Pedagogy of Liberation', his work has been appropiated (...) in many diverse fields of discipline and site-based projects of social reform. This volume represents a pathfinding analysis of Freires work and in many cases it offers an extension of his thinking in order to make it more applicable to first world contexts. Peter McLaren and Peter Leonard have brought together a divergent group of scholars widely recognized for their contributions to critical theory and critical pedagogy. Themes addressed include Freier's relation to feminist critique, his philosophical roots and an evaluation of his ideas from postmodernist and postcolonialist perspectives. The collection will be essential reading for anyone interested in the radical sociology of education and the politics of liberation. (shrink)

The development of this paper is presented in two moments. In the first, the analysis of the literacy method of master Paulo Freire is made. However, he ceases to be approached as a simple set of reading and writing techniques to highlight the “anthropological, ethical and political proposal to rescue the ontological vocation of men and women, which, among others, materializes in the right to read world. In the second, the focus is on the relationships between Freire's pedagogical (...) thinking and the theory of Brazilian nationalism-developmentalism developed within the ISEB in the period between 1959 and 1964. The central argument is that Paulo Freire's position is opposed to that of the elites, to the closed society and identified with the nuances of conservative populism that massifies, fanatizes and prevents the simple men from being participants and agents of the transformation process that they consider fundamental; the education proposed was essentially transformative and liberating. Throughout the development of the text, the importance of Paulo Freire and the reasons for occupying this prominent place in the history of Brazilian and world education are always emphasized. (shrink)

Paulo Freire Paulo Freire was one of the most influential philosophers of education of the twentieth century. He worked wholeheartedly to help people both through his philosophy and his practice of critical pedagogy. A native of Brazil, Freire's goal was to eradicate illiteracy among people from previously colonized countries and continents. His insights were … Continue reading Paulo Freire →.

Paulo Freire is undeniably a prominent figure who greatly influenced 21st century higher education. More specifically, architectural education been greatly affected by Freire’s thinking in relation to producing a design project with dialogue and consciousness. This study aims to implement Freire’s thoughts in contemporary design studios, where the core courses of architectural education occur. This study employs a narrative methodology and in-depth interviews with third-year students from the design studios of two universities, one public and another private. The study (...) investigates the impact of the concept of ‘dialogue’ on student creativity, and ‘banking education’ thought of Freire to determine how this idea affects students’ consciousness of their learning process. Therefore, this research attempts to apply three of Freire’s key thoughts that have been discussed in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed: ‘dialogue’, ‘consciousness’, and ‘banking education’. As a result, banking education applied by local-experienced instructors in the public university has confused students when applying given information to the theoretical part of their projects, which directed them to show fewer creative concepts. On the other hand, the students had greater consciousness of their learning process, awareness of their strengths and weaknesses in regard to the concepts of their design projects, and involvement in their classes when they felt a dialogue by the abroad-experienced instructors in the private university. This study shows that architectural education in that region requires a serious consciousness of Freirean theory. (shrink)

The paper argues that the theme of cultural and racial oppression is present throughout Freire’s work. In particular, it explores Paulo Freire’s contribution to the discussion of colonialism and decolonization. To this purpose, first of all it takes into consideration some writings elaborated between the end of the 1950s and the 1970s, enhancing the dialogue with authors such as Albert Memmi, Frantz Fanon and Amílcar Cabral. Then it focuses on concepts which, although not directly linked to the analysis of (...) colonialism, can help reinvent and expand Freire’s proposal in a decolonial key. The last part is dedicated to Freire’s influence on decolonial pedagogy and intercultural critical pedagogy, developed in recent decades starting from the Latin American context. (shrink)

The preceding symposium articles speculate on the psychosocial dynamics of discrimination as reverberating with grief, mourning, melancholia, and denial. They invite a psychoanalytic paradox on the fate of inchoate loss and its complex relation to oppression and depression: constellations of attachment to loss met with its social and psychical disavowal render inexpressible to the other the work of mourning and drive its myriad expressions. A different way of putting the dilemma is that grief calls upon symbolic equation and the pain (...) of symbolization. Deborah Britzman's coda reads the psychoanalyst Melanie Klein's consideration of depression as the origin of the human condition with Paulo Freire's call to educators for a radical humanization to release oppression. Between Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Klein's Love, Guilt, and Reparation, the coda traces a signifying loss that attests to the entwined roots of the self/other matrix with attention to the needed fluctuations within interiority and exteriority, loss and the depressive position, illness and health, and psychoanalysis with pedagogy. (shrink)

This book shows how participatory research can provide tools to overcome the current epistemic and ethical challenges faced by traditional scientific approaches. Ever since Funtowicz and Ravetz proposed the notion of post-normal science, there has been a growing awareness of the limits of a form of knowledge production based only on the traditional scientific peer communities that excludes other social groups affected by its results and applications. The growing uncertainty and complexity posed by socio-ecological issues in the interactions between science, (...) society and decision making has revealed the importance of a social quality control over crucial decisions that rely on scientific research and the necessary democratization of knowledge to tackle sustainability and health concerns. Departing from a reinterpretation of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, this volume shows how participatory research can contribute to reconnect science and society by extending peer communities through the incorporation of different forms of knowledge and different social actors into research projects. To do so, the author presents a critical review of different participatory research approaches, identifying the elements that distinguish a true participatory research from a traditional one, and proposing a taxonomy of the various participatory methodologies. The volume also analyzes a diversity of social practices and understandings that deal with an ecology of knowledge and its systemic characteristics. Moreover, it demonstrates that uncertainties can be integrated in dialogical processes that open possibilities for a myriad of outcomes. Participatory Research in the Post-Normal Age - Unsustainability and Uncertainties to Rethink Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed will be of interest to researchers working with participatory approaches in different fields like health, environmental sciences, and education, as well as to practitioners of action research concerned with scientific dilemmas and counter-hegemonic strategies. (shrink)

This is the first book-length study in English to investigate Freire's landmark educational theory and practice through the lens of his lifelong Catholicism. A Pedagogy of Faith explores this often-overlooked dimension of one of the most globally prominent and influential educational thinkers of the past fifty years. Leopando illustrates how vibrant currents within twentieth-century Catholic theology shaped central areas of Freire's thought and activism, especially his view of education as a process of human formation in light of (...) the divinely-endowed “vocation” of persons to shape culture, society, and history. With the contemporary resurgence of authoritarian political and cultural forces throughout much of the world, Freire's theologically-grounded affirmation of radical democracy, social justice, historical possibility, and the absolute dignity of the human person remains as vital and relevant as ever. (shrink)

In this paper I draw apart two different contexts of Freirean pedagogical practice that I label interactional and institutional. The interactional refers to the immediate learning environment with relation to the interaction between the students and the teacher. In contrast, the institutional refers to how the institutions of education are managed, constructed, and organised and how they relate to the individuals those institutions are composed of. I begin by presenting a brief overview of Freire’s argument in favour of a revolutionary (...) pedagogy. I then highlight how this project is represented at both interactional and institutional levels with a particular focus upon the practice of the revolutionary leaders and their role in the development of the humanisation of the oppressed. In presenting the interactional and institutional elements of Freire’s pedagogy separately the tension between the individual and the state is made plain and the limitations of his politico-educational project are drawn out. I argue that due to an inconsistent application of the relationship between means and ends in Freire’s politico-educational project an incoherence between the interactional and institutional levels of education is highlighted. In responding to this limitation of Freire’s politico-educational project with a thoroughly interconnected relationship of means and ends I show that there remains a necessary conflict between the interests of the individual and the state. As a result of this a door is opened for the development of an argument in favour of the disestablishment of education and state from a Freirean perspective. (shrink)

Provides new insights on the lasting impact of famed philosopher and educator Paulo Freire 50 years after the publication of his masterpiece, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, this book brings new perspectives on rethinking and reinventing Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire. Written by the most premier exponents and experts of Freirean scholarship, it explores the currency of Freire's contribution to social theory, educational reform, and democratic education. It also analyzes the intersections of Freire’s theories with other (...) crucial social theorists such as Gramsci, Gandhi, Habermas, Dewey, Sen, etc. The Wiley Handbook of Paulo Freire studies the history and context of the man as a global public intellectual, moving from Brazil to the rest of the world and back. Each section offers insides on the epistemology of the global south initiated by Freire with his work in Latin America; the connections between class, gender, race, religion, the state and eco-pedagogy in the work of Freire; and the contributions he made to democratic education and educational reform. Presents original theory and analysis of Freire’s life and work Offers unique and comprehensive analysis of the reception and application of Paulo Freire in international education on all continents Provides a complete historical study of Freire’s contributions to education Systematically analyzes the impact of Freire in teachers training, higher education, and lifelong learning The Wiley Handbook of Paulo Freire is an ideal book for courses on international and comparative education, pedagogy, education policy, international development, and Latin America studies. (shrink)

Resumo: Este artigo analisa a educação para a liberdade em Paulo Freire, considerando seus desafios e perspectivas em tempos de construção da resistência. Considera-se que as formulações freireanas de uma educação para a liberdade permitem a mobilização e a organização das lutas x se manifestam no contexto da crise do Capital. O artigo cumpre os seguintes objetivos na análise dos contributos de Paulo Freire: abordar sua atuação política e intelectual em favor de uma educação para a liberdade; destacar (...) as influências do pensamento social em sua formulação crítica de educação e identificar os eixos teórico-políticos de sua concepção de uma educação para a liberdade para a construção da resistência. Realizou-se uma revisão bibliográfica que se fundamentou na análise de obras de Paulo Freire, de produções que repercutem sua atuação política e intelectual e de sistematizações que se apropriam das formulações teórico-metodológicas freireanas. As referências nas contribuições de Paulo Freire guardam a educação como ato inerentemente humano, traduzindo a liberdade como fundamento ontológico do ser social, que se relaciona com os processos pedagógicos orientados pelo diálogo consciente, crítico, coletivo em favor da transformação. Palavras-chave: Paulo Freire; Educação; Liberdade. Education for freedom in Paulo Freire: challenges and perspectives in times of resistance building Summary: This article analyzes the education for freedom in Paulo Freire, considering challenges and perspectives in times of resistance building. It is considered that Freire's formulations of an education for freedom allow the mobilization and organization of the struggles of the working class, resisting the current advances of an ultraconservative, authoritarian and fascist character that are manifested in the Capital crisis. The analysis fulfills the following objectives in the analysis of Paulo Freire's contributions: to approach his political and intellectual performance in favor of an education for freedom; to highlight the influences of social thought in its critical formulation of education and to identify the theoretical and political axes of its conception of an education for freedom for the construction of resistance. A bibliographic review was carried out that was based on the analysis of Paulo Freire's works, of productions that reflect his political and intellectual performance and of systematizations that appropriate the Freirean theoretical-methodological formulations. The references in Paulo Freire's contributions keep education as an inherently human act, translating freedom as an ontological foundation of the social being, which is related to the pedagogical processes guided by conscious, critical, collective dialogue to the transformation. Keywords: Paulo Freire; Education; Freedom. Educación para la libertad en Paulo Freire: desafíos y perspectivas en tiempos de construcción de resistencias Resumen: Este artículo analiza la educación para la libertad en Paulo Freire, considerando sus desafíos y perspectivas en tiempos de construcción de resistencias. Se considera que las formulaciones de Freire permiten la movilización y organización de las luchas de la clase trabajadora, resistiendo los actuales avances de carácter ultraconservador, autoritario y fascista que se manifiestan en la crisis del Capital. El análisis cumple los siguientes objetivos: acercar la actuación política e intelectual de Paulo Freire en una educación para la libertad; destacar las influencias del pensamiento social en su formulación crítica de la educación e identificar los ejes teóricos y políticos de su concepción de una educación para la libertad para la construcción de resistencias. Se realizó una revisión bibliográfica basada en análisis de la obra de Paulo Freire, de producciones que reflejan su desempeño político e intelectual y de sistematizaciones que se apropian de las formulaciones teórico-metodológicas freireanas. Los referentes en los aportes de Paulo Freire mantienen la educación como un acto inherentemente humano, traduciendo la libertad como fundamento ontológico del ser social, que se relaciona con los procesos pedagógicos guiados por el diálogo consciente, crítico, colectivo a favor de la transformación. Palabras clave: Paulo Freire; Educación; Libertad. Data de registro: 12/03/2021 Data de aceite: 19/01/2022. (shrink)

The work of Paulo Freire, while remaining important to many educators, has been challenged by some postmodernist arguments. In particular, the pursuit of justice becomes difficult, or at least more complicated, when the concept of difference is taken seriously. This paper reconsiders the Freirean commitment to justice in the light of ideas from Young and Pavlich and Ratner, Critical theory, poststructuralism and the social context, Palmerston North: Dunmore Press). How might the work of Paulo Freire accommodate these ideas (...) and what demands do they place on his philosophy? In addressing this question, I focus on three key themes in contemporary debates over pedagogy and justice: the notion that the individual is produced; the significance of difference; and the idea that justice is context dependent and multiple. I argue that given Freire’s emphasis in later publications on the produced and unfinished self and his recognition of the multilayered nature of oppression, Freirean theory continues to have much to offer to these debates. (shrink)

This essay places Paulo Freire in dialogue with a Black Radical Tradition (BRT) in three distinct yet interrelated ways. First, the paper situates the significance of Cedric’s Robinson’s articulation of a BRT while exploring how contemporary scholars are troubling his disputatious relationship with Marxist social thought. Second, the paper foregrounds Freire’s modest contributions to a BRT in his anticolonial literacy campaigns in Guinea Bissau, Africa. Extending the principles of ‘dialogical cultural action’ in the context of African struggle that Freire (...) documented in the letters compiled in Pedagogy in Process, a robust theorization of solidarity comes into sharper view. Third, the paper calls for further reinvention of Freire pointing to the ways his cogent analysis can be augmented by other racialized groups and radical traditions in solidarity with Black struggle to more explicitly confront the inherent racism and anti-Blackness fundamental to global capitalism. (shrink)

While some of Paulo Freire's readers understand his pedagogy as a rejection of any and all directive teaching methods, there are many scholars who do recognise Freire's emphasis on teacher directiveness in its appropriate form. In light of this tension between directiveness and dialogue, it seems that students of Freire must inevitably come to a crossroads: is Freire's pedagogy directive or is it not? However, even this question does not get at the more critical (...) dilemma: if Freire's pedagogy is directive, is such directiveness incompatible with Freire's overwhelming emphasis on egalitarian dialogue? This paper establishes three readings of the issue of directiveness in Freire and ultimately provides an exegetical defence of what is termed the compatibilist reading—that directive teaching, properly construed, is compatible with dialogic teaching in Freirean pedagogy. The question this paper seeks to answer is how Freire can have it both ways. In sum, Freire undeniably supports teacher directiveness and philosophically justifies directiveness as compatible with problem-posing education through his concepts of virtue education, utopia and criticality. (shrink)

This article considers key differences and similarities between Freirean and Taoist ideals. I limit my focus to the Tao Te Ching (attributed to Lao Tzu), paying brief attention to the origins of this classic work of Chinese philosophy before concentrating on several themes of relevance to Freire's work. An essay by James Fraser (1997), who makes three references to the Tao Te Ching in his discussion of love and history in Freire's pedagogy, provides a helpful starting point (...) for investigation. A summary of Fraser's account is followed by a more detailed discussion of the meaning of ‘action’ and ‘non‐action’, the nature and role of knowing and knowledge, and the relations between ignorance, happiness and education for Freire and Lao Tzu. I conclude that while the differences between these two systems of thought are significant and must be acknowledged, reflection upon these differences has the potential to be educationally productive. (shrink)

Although it is commonly assumed that Paulo Freire was widely influential in the field of education in the United States immediately upon publication of his classic work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, in 1970, the historical evidence indicates otherwise. In fact, Freire's work only began to gain wide reception in the field in the mid- and late 1980s. In the process of charting a new history of the reception of Freire's work in the field, this historical article (...) illuminates contemporary issues with the use of Freire's ideas in educational conversations about social structure and agency. In particular, the article seeks to renew a close, contextual read of Freire's texts, especially Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and invigorate discussion about Freire's primary claim?that education must be the central feature of building movements for radical social change. Similarly, the article seeks to renew attention to the structural concerns that initiated the turn towards critical Marxist scholarship in the field?concerns about the relationship between school and society in the United States that the initial wave of critical scholars knew must be addressed before fully engaging ideas about the ways in which schools may participate in the push for social change. (shrink)

Famous Brazilian educational and social theorist Paulo Freire presents his ideas on community solidarity in moving toward social justice in schools and society in a set of talks and interviews shortly before his death, supplemented with ...

Paulo Freire’s philosophy of education, popularized via his magnum opus, The Pedagogy of the oppressed (2000 [1970]) ‘shocked’ the world, sort of constructively, with its trenchant, au courant and futuristic meditations on the onto-epistemological lives of the marginalized in Latin America, and by elliptical extension, across the world. The central tenets of Freire’s thought as reflectively (and reflexively) acting upon the world to transform it, are as current today as these were in the late 1960s, majorly because of (...) the subjectively active ways it interacts with our onto-epistemological locations and intentions. It is in appreciating such durable temporality about his philosophy that one can sense, indeed, thickly discern it trans-spatial and transcultural connections with the humanist African philosophy of Ubuntu and it educational foundations. Ubuntu in its across-Africa readings, represents both a practical and aspirational humanization of all people (more popularly, perceiving and practicing our personhoods through the personhoods of others) with the potential outcome, in the words of Desmond Tutu (in Battle, 2009), of the cessation of inter-people conflict and oppression. With these perspectives and prospects from Freire and Ubuntu, the intersecting subsets of the two are, I argue, thickly important with analytically discernible onto-epistemological and pedagogical connections and operations. (shrink)

Although there is ample interrogation of advertising/commercial/media culture in critical pedagogy, there is little attention paid to the fine arts and to aesthetic experience. This lacuna is all the more perplexing given Paulo Freire’s use of artist Francisco Brenand’s illustrations for his culture circles. In this essay I will return to Freire’s original description of the relationship between fine art images and conscientizacao in order to map out the future of the image in critical pedagogy. This return (...) to the origin of the use of images in literacy programs will highlight the interdependent nature of word and image but also will demonstrate some of the long standing misconceptions of the way fine art images function in relation to education and politics. In conclusion I will suggest that if images have a future in critical pedagogy, then this future must ultimately move beyond Freire. As an alternative genealogical anchoring point for the development of the aesthetics of critical literacy, I suggest a turn to the work of Jacques Rancière. Through his conceptualization of the “pensive image” as well as the “emancipated spectator” we can begin to understand how the fine art image can work to realize Freire’s democratic ideals without relying on Freire’s problematic formulation of the image-pedagogy relationship. In conclusion, I suggest that the philosophical model necessary to support critical literacy is not Freire’s culture circle so much as Kant’s aesthetic community now revitalized via Rancière’s own aesthetics of dissensus. (shrink)

Examining the still underexplored elements in educational theorist Paulo Freire's work, this essay begins from his claim that problem-posing pedagogy works as a “kind of psychoanalysis.” Situating Freire between the critical philosophical and psychoanalytic traditions, Alex Armonda offers a new reading of the problem-posing dialectic, mapping parallels between Freirean pedagogy and psychoanalysis on the nature of the subject/object relation, while thinking new connections across the philosophical-analytical divide on questions of being, subjectivity, and politics. First, he discusses (...) the onto-epistemic specificity of “the human” in Freire and situates it in relation to the split subject of the unconscious in Lacanian psychoanalysis. Second, he presents the subject/object encounter in Freire, demonstrating that a similar notion of the unconscious informs Freire's account and plays a central role in his understanding of the banking and problem-posing pedagogical experiences. Advancing a Lacanian reading of the problem-posing encounter, Armonda concludes by reflecting on key differences between the dialectical-materialist and psychoanalytical interpretations of Freire, and how the latter opens new perspectives on “reality” as an inconsistent space of contest, generating alternative ways of conceiving political subjectivity and the possibility of radical social transformation in the present. (shrink)

This paper reinvents Freire’s concepts of ‘banking education’ and ‘literacy’ within the context of the exponential growth of digital instruction in the 21st century. We argue that digital learning (i.e. online or technology enhanced) undoubtedly increases access to education globally, but also can intensify some of the worst problems described in Freire’s banking model. Accordingly, we draw from postdigital theory to scrutinize the specific structures and functions of common digital Learning Management Systems (LMSs) used by schools (i.e. Blackboard and Google (...) Classroom) to reveal a type of learning that further exacerbates the teacher-student dichotomy without liberating either party in a Freirean sense. We then use a Foucauldian lens to bring an awareness to how the accelerated use of these systems at scale, in part caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, can further entrench a data-driven, dehumanized educational experience which increases corporate profitability perhaps over the needs of students. Finally, we use these insights to modernize Freire’s concept of ‘literacy’ by building on Critical Medial Literacy (CML) in order to help educators address LMSs, (mis)information facilitated by digital content, and schooling in a (post)pandemic and postdigital world. (shrink)

Peter Roberts’ book Paulo Freire: Philosophy, Pedagogy, and Practice, which discusses the work and philosophy of famed critical educator Paulo Freire, takes the view that Freirean thought is to be...

Discusses the role of education in liberating the oppressed people of the Third World.

In this article, I critically engage with a vital assumption behind the work of Paulo Freire, and more generally behind any critical pedagogy, viz. the belief that education is fundamentally about emancipation. My main goal is to conceive of a contemporary critical pedagogy which stays true to the original inspiration of Freire’s work, but which at the same time takes it in a new direction. More precisely, I confront Freire with Jacques Rancière. Not only is the latter’s (...) work on education fully predicated on the idea of emancipation. For both Freire and Rancière, literacy initiation practice can be seen as an archetypical model for understanding the emancipatory moment in education. For both, educational practices are never neutral, as they decide to a great extent on the fate of our common world. Reflecting on similarities and differences in both their positions, I will propose to conceive of critical pedagogy in terms of a thing-centred pedagogy. As such, I take a clear position in the discussion between teacher- and student-centred approaches. According to Rancière, it is the full devotion to a ‘thing’, i.e. to a subject matter we study, which makes emancipation possible. Over and against Freire’s defense of emancipatory education, I highlight with Rancière the importance of educational emancipation. (shrink)

Language is the main resource for meaningful action, including the very formation of selves and psychosocial identities, shaped by practical norms, beliefs, and values. Thus, language education constitutes one of the most powerful means for both social reproduction and social production and ideological maintenance and utopian innovation. In this paper, we attempt to emphasise the invaluable psychosocial, political, economic, and cultural function of language education in order to propose a critical view of the current transition from the monolingual to a (...) multilingual paradigm. We maintain that multilingual approaches tend to serve the neoliberal framework and reproduce its systemic inequalities. Therefore, we argue in favour of emancipatory multilingual practices that could embody a translingual pedagogy capable of promoting the development of capabilities, the recognition of otherness, and the cultivation of diversity. Rooted in critical theory, namely in Foucault’s notion of subjectification and Freire’s view of conscientisation, an emancipatory translingual pedagogy would enable and empower every learner to synthesise a contextually creative field of new semantic and pragmatic relationships. Critical language education would enhance the ethos of biophilia that fosters what we term the poetics of communality and selfhood, that is to say, the proactive commitment to expanding symbolic and existential novelty. (shrink)