pedagogy of the oppressed by paulo freire

He developed adult literacy programmes in Guinea-Bissau, Tanzania, and Angola.įreire read extensively about colonisation and its effects on the people, including the writings of African revolutionary intellectuals like Frantz Fanon and Amilcar Cabral. He met with The People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), and the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC). During this time, he visited Zambia, Tanzania, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe, Angola, and Cape Verde.

He also had significant contact with African freedom struggles. After seventy days in prison, he was released and forced to leave the country.ĭuring his years in exile, he continued to carry out his practical work in other countries in Latin America, such as Chile, where he wrote his most important book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and developed adult literacy programmes. Freire was among the many people arrested by the dictatorship. In 1964, the Brazilian military seized control of the country with the backing of the United States and imposed a brutal right-wing dictatorship. The method of dialogical engagement that he developed from the 1950s onwards became an emancipatory and progressive alternative to the dominant school programmes sponsored by the US government through agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), an organisation that is notorious for backing coups against elected governments in Latin America and elsewhere.

In Freire’s early works, he wrote that the fundamental goal of radical pedagogy is to develop a critical conscience in individuals. Freire saw the role of community and worker organisations and struggles as vital in the formation of the critical conscience that is required to overcome the domination and dependence of the oppressed. After his university studies, he became a schoolteacher and began to develop an interest in radical approaches to education, including projects to teach adult literacy.

Mural of Paulo Freire at the entrance to the Florestan Fernandes National School of the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) in Guararema, Brazil, 2018.įreire was born in Recife, a city in north eastern Brazil, in 1921.

Pedagogy of the oppressed by paulo freire