Paulo Freire 1921 – 1997
Paulo Reglus Neves Freire was a Brazilian educator and philosopher and one of the founders of critical pedagogy. After early work with adult literacy programs among the poor of northeastern Brazil, he developed a method of teaching reading and writing that took the lived experience of the learners as its starting point. Driven into exile by the 1964 military coup, he wrote his Pedagogy of the Oppressed during long years in Chile and elsewhere, articulating a philosophy in which education is either an instrument of domestication or of liberation. He returned to Brazil after the end of military rule and served as Secretary of Education for the city of Sao Paulo.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Brazilian
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Postcolonial Philosophy, Political
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Paulo Freire:
“Education is never neutral; it is either domesticating or liberating.”
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Attributed to Paulo Freire:
“The oppressed must liberate themselves, and in doing so liberate the oppressors.”
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Attributed to Paulo Freire:
“Reading the world precedes reading the word.”
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Attributed to Paulo Freire:
“Dialogue is the encounter of those who name the world.”
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Attributed to Paulo Freire:
“To exist humanly is to name the world, to change it.”