Tribute to Paulo Freire (1921-1997)

Abstract

Paulo Freire has been one of the most significant educationists of the last 30 years. His work is cited freely in the literature on education and social thought emerging not only from the' Third World', which provided the context for most of his pedagogical practice and ideas, but also from Western industrialised centres. Freire continues to enjoy iconic status among educators and educationists alike. An Argentinian friend of mine, Daniel Schugurensky, wrote recently, with respect to adult education, that' in Latin America, Paulo Freire constitutes a watershed. There is before and after Freire' (Schugurensky 1996: 344). Another Argentinian, Carlos Alberto Torres, once remarked: 'We can stay with Freire or against Freire, but not without Freire.' (Torres 1982: 94). And Freire's influence extends beyond the field of education to be felt in a variety of areas, including sociology, development studies, language studies, anthropology, philosophy, theology, communications and cultural studies. The greatest and most enduring aspect of Freire's work is his emphasis on the political nature of all educational activity. In Freire's view, there is no such thing as a 'neutral' education. Education can domesticate individuals, contributing to their acceptance of or passivity in relation to the status quo. Alternatively, it can liberate them, providing them with the disposition to engage in a dialectical relationship with knowledge and society. This is part and parcel of a critical reading of the world. One way teacher-student transmission, often a reflection of a wider prescriptive process of communication, constitutes a domesticating education. Freire advocates a process characterised by a dialogical approach to knowledge. Although not being on an equal footing (Freire in Shor and Freire 1987: 103), teacher and learner learn from each other as they co-investigate dialectically the object of knowledge. In his adult education work among peasants, he generated a process whereby learners are allowed to stand back from that which is familiar to them to perceive it in a more critical light (e.g. Scott 1996: 345). It is the means by which one can reflect critically on one's action with a view to transforming it. This process is referred to as 'praxis', a key concept in Freire's thinking and pedagogical work (Allman and Wallis 1990). The concept is initially used in the sense employed by Marx in his early writings ('revolutionising practice'). Later, in the analysis of the Guinea Bissau experience, where education is viewed in relation to the social relations of production, Freire employs it in a manner reminiscent of Marx's Capital Vol. 1, where the area of productive activity constitutes the focus of reflection for transformative action (Freire 1978).