Education for social justice : the contribution of Paulo Freire, Lorenzo Milani, Jack Mezirow and Kathleen King to transformative education

Abstract

Successful teaching involves much more than the transmission of content and skills - it should help students generate knowledge and engage critically with the social world with the possibility of transforming it. This study focuses on the concept of Transformative education as revealed by four major educators: Paulo Freire, Lorenzo Milani, Jack Mezirow and Kathleen King through the use of extensive archival material. The introductory chapter of this thesis will provide a critique of the transmission model of education whilst introducing briefly the notion of Transformative education. This will be followed by four chapters that provide the reader with a critical analysis of the opus of the four educators. The final chapter constitutes a synthesis of the ideas generated by the four intellectuals regarding Transformative education; it delves into similarities and points out any differences that the researcher has come across during the research. From the findings, all four educators were relatively consistent in their ideas and one will only come across minor differences between them. Transformative education is an evolving model which is constantly developing, giving way for improvement.