Paulo Freire
Working in Brazil, Freire’s literacy model grew from
the Movement for Popular Culture, which set up cultural circles in the 1950’s.
Cultural circles were groups of adults who would join together to discuss a
topic. The educators acting as facilitators could insert “hinge themes” to
clarify the central topic.This model led Freire to discover that the “process”
of the act of learning was a determining factor in relation to the content of
learning.” (Gadotti,1994pg.18). Freire determined that teaching methods where
the teacher and the learner learn together are more effective.
Freire decided to send
“Alphabetizers” into the field to talk to the people to find out about their
lives and ways of looking at the world. The task of the Alphabetizer was to
gather a list of words that were commonly used by the people and then order
them alphabetically. The generated words of the group would have social
relevance, meaning and all the phonemes of Portuguese. They should codify the
way of life of the people. The generated word worked as a key to build on a
topic. For example the word “wages” could lead to the topic of “work” which could
lead to “family” then “conditions” and on to “getting a fair wage.”Educators
were to write the generated word in large letters for everyone to see.Their
task was to get everyone to participate by stimulating a discussion of the
generative word. In this way the adult is educated through a discussion of his
experience of live in relation to others experience of life.
There are three stages to this
method: Investigative, Thematization and Problematization stages. The
Investigative stage is a period of discovery. Generative words are identified
and chosen for syllabic length, phonetic value and principally for social
meaning to the group. In the thematization stage themes, with social meaning
are developed which will be codified and decodified (given meaning and then
revising the meaning). The final problematization stage is the time for
concrete action. A time to overcome oppression. This Freire saw as a time of
“hominization” the process of becoming a man which is directly linked to the
ability to read and write. The objective of the method is conscientization.
Conscientization is the process of getting rid of the influence exhorted by the
dominant consciousness. A process of discovering your own thoughts and values
not accepting the oppressive beliefs of the dominant conscience. Freire
believed that education is necessary for liberation and the result is
transformation.
Paulo Freire saw no use for
traditional primers. How does a person benefit from repeation “Eve saw the
grape”, this statement has nothing to do with reality. Freire stated that
“There will be no significant learning if the pupil fails to establish a
relationship with the object, if he doesn’t act towards it.” (Gadotti, 1994,
pg.24) As a result of this belief, Freire wrote cultural primers in the late
1950’s with the object of building a revolutionary society. His basic objective
with the primers was to present concrete reality to be transformed. Program
content should be presented to allow the pupils to take control of it little by
little rather then just receiving the content. Teaching materials should be
written regionally or even locally. He believed that the universalization of
teaching material to reading is an absurdity scientifically and an act of
authority politically (Gadotti, 1994).
A central theme of Paulo Freire
is that of dialogue. Dialogue is part of human nature, we need each other to
discover and discovery is a social process and discussion is the cement. He
thought that the moment of dialogue was the moment of transformation. Freire
saw the dialogue of the elite as vertical. He called it “banking” pedagogy. The
person who is learning only needs to listen while the educator“deposits”
knowledge. This narrative form of education maintains the division between
those who know and those who don’t.Freire viewed dialogue as a horizontal
relationship based on love respect and tolerance. It follows then that Banking
education and problemitazation are opposite methods.
Paulo Freire is often described
as a humanistic, militant educator who believed that solutions in education are
always found in concrete context. Students should be asked what they want to
learn. There must be a collaboration, union and cultural synthesis. The
educator should not manipulate students but should also not leave them to their
own fate. He should direct tasks and study not order students. He believed that
the liberating educator invites students to think. This allows the student to
make and remake their worlds and become more human. Freire believed that
communication should be simple even if the information is complex. Simplifying,
allows for deeper accessibility by the student.
Paulo Freire’s work was
influenced by Marxism, existentialism and phenomenology. He behaved the same in
life as in the classroom. He was a prolific writer and author of many books.
His most important work was Pedagogy of the Oppressed in which he
describes the oppressive mechanisms of a capitalist education. This book has
been published in 17 languages, is in its 35th edition in Spanish,
and is today widely read. Before Pedagogy of the Oppressed was published
in 1970, it was called a violent book and against Christian democracy by right
wing educators. As a result of a military coup in 1964, he was accused of
trying to make Brazil a bolshevik country and was jailed for 70 days. He used
his time in prison to reaffirm his thesis that social change had to come from
the masses and that education and politics are strongly linked. When he was released
from prison he left Brazil, spending a few years in Chile followed by a brief
period as a professor at Harvard then moving to Switzerland to fulfill a need
to learn about other countries. He joined the World Council of Churches as a
consultant and educational counselor. Subsequently he lead many successful
literacy campaigns in several countries. Freire returned to Brazil in 1980
helping to found the Institute for Cultural Action, a research and education
center based on conscientization. In 1988 he was appointed Minister of
Education for the City of Sao Paulo were he guided school reform for two-thirds
of the nation’s schools.
In his life Paulo Freire was awarded numerous honorary degrees and received wide recognition for his contributions to adult literacy. His focus was on the dialogue between teacher and pupil. He believed that the acquisition of knowledge creates social change and the relationship of politics and education are strongly linked. He asserted that the pupil is the master of his/her own learning and that education is the path to liberation.