Paulo Freire and the Concept of Education

In this article, I argue that Paulo Freire’s liberatory conception of education is interesting, challenging, even transforming because central to it are important aspects of education which other philosophers marginalise. I also argue that Freire’s critics are right when they claim that he paid insufficient attention to another important aspect of education. Finally, I argue for a conception of education which takes account of the strengths and at the same time overcomes the limitations of Freire’s liberatory conception.     

Paulo Freire and political correctness

This paper addresses the issue of political correctness from a Freirean point of view. An identification of the range of areas to which the label 'political correctness' has been applied reveals a confusingly multifaceted term. The author concentrates on the key characteristics of intolerance, conformity, the impeding of questioning and criticism, the stifling of debate, and the denial of alternatives. Thus defined, 'political correctness' has no place in Freirean education.     

保罗·弗莱雷的教育思想

文章分析了巴西教育家保罗·弗莱雷在其著作《被压迫者教育学》一书中的教育思想:压迫者与被压迫者之间的辩证关系;教育学中的被压迫现象。     

Paulo Freire in a Hall of Mirrors

Since first published in English in 1970, Pedagogy of the Oppressed has inspired generations of scholars and social activists to examine the inherent potential of Paulo Freire's theories on grassroots intellectual emancipation and education in marginalized communities. The interpretive lineage of Freire's writings is vast, indeed. To date, scholars continue to mobilize Freire's ideas to establish meaningful connections between what he describes as “liberatory teaching” and the role progressive educators must play in bringing about a more just and humane society. Freire's popularity outside Brazil, however, has come with inevitable tradeoffs worth considering, particularly as regards the epistemological directions and labels affixed to his educational philosophy. Considering the “many Freires” phenomenon, Sandro Barros takes a genealogical approach in this essay to the metanarratives that have made up Freire scholarship outside Brazil. His analysis is guided by the following questions: (1) What kinds of hermeneutic cultures have enveloped Freire's ideas in academic contexts? (2) How have these cultures shaped the reading practices that surround his texts?     

The critical spirituality of Paulo Freire

Starting from the premise that Paulo Freire’s capacity for hope in the face of personal struggle and exile issued from his spirituality, this paper examines Freire’s spirituality through the lens of Michael Dantley’s concept of critical spirituality. The concept of spirituality as discussed in the literature is explored, followed by an explication of Dantley’s concept of critical spirituality, which is an integration of critical theory and African-American spirituality as articulated by Cornel West and others. After briefly reviewing Freire’s religious and cultural background, the paper compares Dantley and Freire in terms of their perspectives on hope, conversion to or solidarity with the oppressed and prophetic vision. The paper concludes by offering four implications of Freire’s critical spirituality for educators seeking to work for social change.     

Paulo Freire and the pedagogical traditions of the subject English

I seek here to explain and elaborate on how and why Paulo Freire’s work has significance for educators in today’s ‘affluent’ west, not least in reminding us powerfully of core critical and celebratory values at a time when many teachers, and not only of English, feel under huge pressure – a pressure that in fact verges on the oppressive. My focus here is on native language teaching and learning – English, in effect – thus echoing Freire’s concern for critical literacy and pedagogy and how these may relate constructively to fundamentally Romantic traditions of English pedagogy.     

Paulo Freire: Dialogue,Politics and Relevance

The paper seeks to present a reconceptualization of non‐formal education (NFE). The argument is based on developing nations of Asia, Africa and the Pacific. The reconceptualization is based on bringing together three different types of NFE: NFE as complement, alternative and supplement to the formal education system. The first type represents the role of NFE in providing a means of satisfying unfulfilled provision from the school system; the second type is equated with the use of traditional or indigenous learning; the third is related to the sorts of educational activities associated with development activities following the end of the Cold War. While it is argued that NFE is nation and culture specific, analytic tools are suggested that allow NFE in its three types to be discussed across nations as well as for any individual developing nation. The tools used for the analysis consist of methods to describe the providers of the various forms of NFE‐agencies and institutions‐and three concepts to examine the three types of NFE, namely as a system, setting and process.     

A limited,apolitical, and open Paulo Freire

Paulo Freire’s work is often characterized and used in terms that seek to produce widespread political and economic changes across societies. Peter Roberts, however, in his book Paulo Freire in the twenty-first Century, offers readers a much different way of approaching Freire’s work. Throughout his book, Roberts presents Freire as recognizing the limitations of educational initiatives, as not seeking specific macro-political objectives, and as emphasizing openness to alternative discourses. These themes weave throughout each chapter of the book, in which Roberts examines a wide range of topics, from Freire and Dostoevsky to reason and emotion to political correctness to Freire and the Tao Te Ching. In this review essay, I engage a number of purposes. I elucidate and trace these three themes as they weave throughout and support the various topics that Roberts examines in his book. I illustrate how Roberts’s treatment of these themes challenges many of the interpretations of Freire’s work found within the critical literature, and, through this critique, it offers readers new ways of thinking about Freire’s thinking. Lastly, I discuss how Roberts’s thoughts suggest new ways that Freire’s work, and critical education in general, might begin to make more meaningful and practical inroads into public education and might develop new avenues of scholarship on Freire’s work.     

Paulo Freire,Critical Literacy,and Indigenous Resistance

Using several case studies drawn from Freire’s cultural context and contemporary Canadian Indigenous resistance movements, this article questions whether a Freirean approach to critical literacy can work with Indigenous literacy needs without reproducing colonial power structures. It also seeks to examine current scholarship in the literacy education of Maritime Aboriginal people in Canada and to illustrate the need for critical pedagogies honoring multiple cultural literacies and ways of knowing among Indigenous youth.