Paulo Freire and Liberation philosophy of education
pp. 175-185
in: Paul Smeyers (ed), International handbook of philosophy of education, Berlin, Springer, 2018Abstract
Freire's project of critical literacy, which he initiated in 1946 when he was appointed director of the Department of Education and Culture of the Social Service in the state of Penambuco, Brazil, was an immediate overturning of the traditional classroom that, along with other vestiges of colonialism, has its roots in European authoritarian pedagogies that accentuate the dichotomy between the expertise of the master (instructor) and the ignorance of the novice (student). "By giving the student formulas to receive and store, we have not offered him the means for authentic thought" (Freire P, Education for critical consciousness. Seabury Press, New York, 1973, p. 38). In sum, Freire's is a decolonial project intent on dismantling antidemocratic, anti-dialogic, and authoritarian schooling by initiating an entirely new project of liberation education within agricultural campesino communities and beyond.
