Pedagogy of the Oppressed – a soft and hopeful scream

Abstract

This article has as its goal to reflect on the relevance and topicality of Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire. Facing the immense legacy by Freire, something may be considered as a consensus: a big dose of hope of a better world. Hope to Freire meant to hope, as a verb. In the difficult present times of Brazilian politics, of emergence of a neoconservative wave in all of society’s dimensions, where many may propose the expulsion of Freire and his legacy from schools and universities, the understanding of Freire’s legacy has to be deepened and updated. That means: to those who propose the “non-party schools” and Freire’s expulsion, we should answer with more Freire and more democracy. If we had managed to make Freire’s propositions more present in our education, surely certain obscure resurrections would have had more difficulties to install themselves into our society.