Paulo Freire and the revival of Popular Education

Abstract

This paper aims at (re)discovering Freirian categories to point out the emphasis that Popular Education has got by contrasting them with the so-called epistemological and political instabilities in our times. Therefore, I propose this initial principle: Freire is a good reference to revive Popular Education. Thus, the task is to highlight the categories Freire uses to reinforce and broaden the nature of Popular Education. The challenges which our times pose to education come up as landmarks both in the selection of categories and in the reflection upon education in general, and, specifically, upon school as a limit-situation which has to face severe consequences resulting from social transformation. The strategies used to approach this topic render several findings. Freire was a man who deeply believed in the human being. Although they are incomplete, men and women can be the subjects of History. In order to carry this task out, Freire became a thinker whose life was embedded in political coherence in favor of the oppressed. His coherence was known by his capacity to dream and have hope; it makes us understand the resistance attitudes that he helped to construct in Brazil and abroad. Freire strongly believed in the people’s capacity (neither exclusive nor messianic) to educate itself (to prepare itself) and transform reality and applied his knowledge to teach people how to read mainly to help people read and write the world. Therefore, the task is to try to find answers for the following question: why Freire is chosen to revive Popular Education?