Who was Paulo Freire?
Paulo Freire was born in Recife in 1921 and grew up seeing poverty during the Great Depression. He studied law but chose to teach Portuguese and began literacy work with peasants and workers in 1947. After the military coup of April 1964 he was jailed for about 70 days, then spent years abroad in Bolivia, Chile, the United States and Switzerland. In Chile he wrote Pedagogy of the Oppressed. He returned to Brazil around 1980 and was São Paulo's education secretary from 1989 to 1991. He died of heart failure on 2 May 1997.
Political views
- Attacked the banking model of schooling, in which teachers deposit facts into passive students, and argued for problem-posing education built on dialogue between equals.Source: iep.utm.edu
- Used the term conscientization for the process of becoming aware of social contradictions and acting against oppression.Source: iep.utm.edu
- Described his outlook as a Christianized Marxist humanism, shaped by Catholic social work, liberation theology and class analysis.Source: encyclopedia.com
- Urged privileged leaders to commit class suicide and join the oppressed, and favored revolution from below led by popular organizations.Source: encyclopedia.com
- Ran literacy programs in Guinea-Bissau in 1975 and consulted for Tanzania and the Sandinistas, stressing the revival of indigenous cultures against colonial legacies.Source: encyclopedia.com
- Helped build the Workers' Party after returning from exile, and as São Paulo's education secretary oversaw about 720,000 students in 654 schools.Source: iep.utm.edu
- Linked education to citizenship and democracy, and saw traditional schooling as serving those in power.Source: newworldencyclopedia.org
Legacy
Admirers see Freire as the founder of critical pedagogy, whose cultural circles taught adults to read from their own experience and whose book remains central to critical pedagogy. The Brazilian military regime saw his work as subversive and delayed the book's release in Brazil until 1974. Critics say his prose is dense and his methods travel poorly. Feminists faulted his early sexist language and neglect of race. Some Marxists doubted his Christian influences and his faith in popular consciousness, and others argue that dialogue can hide the teacher's real authority. He acknowledged the sexism charge and revised his later writing.