Hello! In this video, we're going to meet Paulo Freire, the founder of Critical Pedagogy. Freire was born in 1921 in Recife, Brazil. His ideas about the role of education and political freedom eventually became some of the most significant contributions to what's now known as Critical Pedagogy.
But to fully understand the context in which he formed his ideas, first we have to know a little bit more about the history of Brazil. Brazil was a Portuguese colony from 1500 to 1822. Even after independence, Brazil was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to outlaw slavery in 1888. Well into the 20th century, 85% of Brazil's population was still illiterate, and some still sold themselves or family members into black market slavery to ward off starvation. Freire's family was middle class when he was born.
But the economic depression of the 1930s wiped them out. When Paolo was 10, the family had to move to a smaller, cheaper city on the outskirts of Recife. It was nearly a decade before their fortunes had proved.
Freire later said that he was desperately hungry during these years, which made learning impossible, not due to a lack of interest or ability, but because he was too distracted to focus on anything else. Young Paolo took to stealing in order to feed his family, and eventually had to drop out of elementary school. After his father died of a heart condition exacerbated by poverty and stress in 1934, Frere's mother pleaded with the principal of the local secondary school to allow her son to attend. Because Paolo was passionate about using his education to help others, the principal agreed and even reduced his tuition. With the second chance, Frere eventually studied philosophy while completing his law degree.
He began his career in 1942 teaching at the same secondary school he had graduated from. In 1947, Freire became the director of the Department of Education and Culture and began conducting literacy programs for poor adults. It was during this time that he developed his major ideas about the relationship between oppression, literacy, and educational praxis. Freire's educational philosophy harshly criticizes what he terms the banking model of education, which sees students as passive, empty receptacles to be filled by the wise, all-knowing teacher.
Freire linked this model of education to the socio-economic and political relationship between oppressor and oppressed, which he experienced firsthand during his years of poverty and hunger. Building off of Hegel, Marx, and others, Freire's ontology states that the ultimate goal of all persons is to increase, not decrease, their humanity. In the same way that the colonizer thinks his own ways are always best, the teacher who sees students as hollow vessels is participating in a process that discourages critical thought, perpetuates oppression, and dehumanizes both.
Rather than the traditional hierarchical model of the relationship between teacher and student, where the teacher is firmly above the student, Freire proposed in his most famous work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, published in 1967, that effective education is built upon a democratic relationship between equals who are open to learning from one another. This teacher-student relationship is what allows conscientise a saut, the critical awareness that precedes action, to develop in oppressed peoples over time. Conscienci Saçal begins with students becoming aware of the contradictions in their social, political, economic, gender, race, and class conditions, and then taking action to resolve those contradictions.
In Frédéric's so-called problem-posing education, teachers problematize each issue discussed in class. Students then pose their own solutions. Teacher and students then work together in both goal and process to successfully change the conditions of oppression and ultimately achieve the democratic ideal of freedom and equality for all. Dialogue is the basis for all problem-posing pedagogy and requires solidarity, a sense of equal footing, and mutual respect.
Freire wrote in his later works that education is fundamentally an act of love. Among the many educators, philosophers, and activists influenced by Paulo Freire are Bell Hooks, Henry Garou, Cornel West, and Jonathan Kozol. Pedagogy of the Oppressed has been translated into 17 languages and its emancipatory teaching model has been adopted or adapted in many previously colonized countries on every continent on the globe.
The Paulo Freire Institute is currently active in 18 countries. Even US educators have attempted to adapt Freire's model, though some find it too controversial. For instance, Pedagogy of the Oppressed is one of the books banned by the state of Arizona. More important than his influence on education, however, is the inspiring influence of Pérez's life itself.
His insistence on literacy and love in the quest for human freedom has helped free the hearts and minds of thousands of people, including the children and grandchildren of former slaves, and his vision of change is an ongoing source of encouragement and hope for millions around the globe.