Abstract
The contributions to education of one of the great Latin American thinkers, Paulo Freire, have been enormous. His voice and wisdom have inspired educators globally. Three particular contributions – to emancipation, to literacy, and to dialogue – are explored in this article through a critical lens. From a gender perspective, Freire’s path to consciousness-raising is crucial for emancipation but so also is empowerment, a notion contributed by the women’s movement. Adult literacy, Freire’s vehicle to raise consciousness, has been challenged by a recognition of the complexity underlying its acquisition, a factor we still have to incorporate in training and teaching programmes. Dialogical approaches in adult education, essential as they are to the attainment of deeper understanding of social phenomena and the possibility of consensual social action, build on a long trajectory of efforts to use public space for collective advancement. Situating Freire against a denser historical background enables the recognition of his merits and at the same time rescues the confluence of similar perceptions as well as different ideas in the construction of our contemporary world.
Résumé
Freire, alphabétisation et apprentissage émancipateur à l’équité entre les sexes – Les contributions à l’éducation de l’un des grands penseurs latino-américains, Paulo Freire, sont immenses. Sa parole et sa sagesse inspirent des éducateurs dans le monde entier. Trois de ses contributions – à l’émancipation, à l’alphabétisation et au dialogue – sont soumises dans le présent article à un examen critique. S’agissant de l’équité entre les sexes, la démarche de Freire en faveur de la conscientisation est décisive pour l’émancipation, mais tout autant l’autonomisation, notion émanant du mouvement féministe. L’alphabétisation des adultes, pour Freire vecteur permettant d’accroître la prise de conscience, comporte le défi de tenir compte de la complexité de son acquisition, facteur que nous devons encore intégrer dans les programmes de formation et d’enseignement. Les approches dialogiques de l’éducation des adultes, aussi essentielles qu’elles soient pour mieux comprendre les phénomènes sociaux et conduire à une action sociale consensuelle, dépendent d’une longue série d’efforts pour exploiter l’espace public en vue du développement collectif. Positionner Freire dans un contexte historique plus dense permet de reconnaître ses mérites, mais aussi d’intégrer des perceptions similaires et des idées différentes dans la construction de notre monde contemporain.
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Notes
bell hooks, an American feminist who has been greatly influenced by Freire, holds this was sexist, given the language of his early works (hooks 1993). The English translation of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, published in 1970, preceded the vibrancy of the women’s movement and it would not be correct to judge him by current standards. However, in subsequent writings, Freire could indeed have been more responsive to gender issues.
A formal evaluation of Yo, sí puedo sponsored by UNESCO (2006) found the method to apply a “rather traditional view of language learning” (ibid., p. 4), as it did not incorporate new developments in literacy or take into account the students’ prior learning. Yo sí puedo, however, has contributed to giving greater salience to the problem of illiteracy in the Latin American region.
Originating in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt in Germany, the “Frankfurt school” gathered philosophers, sociologists, art critics, psychologists, among others, who held that Western principles such as positivism and materialism needed to be questioned in order to advance social development.
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Stromquist, N.P. Freire, literacy and emancipatory gender learning. Int Rev Educ 60, 545–558 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-014-9424-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-014-9424-2