Paulo Freire

Paulo Freire
Paulo Reglus Neves Freirewas a Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a leading advocate of critical pedagogy. He is best known for his influential work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, considered one of the foundational texts of the critical pedagogy movement...
NationalityBrazilian
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth19 September 1921
CountryBrazil
Education is freedom.
order shadow revolution
Even revolution, which transforms a concrete situation of oppression by establishing the process of liberation, must confront this phenomenon. Many of the oppressed who directly or indirectly participate in revolution intend - conditioned by the myths of the old order - to make it their private revolution. The shadow of their former oppressor is still cast over them.
invasion succeed essentials
For cultural invasion to succeed, it is essential that those invaded become convinced of their intrinsic inferiority.
world speak praxis
There is no true word that is not at the same time a praxis. Thus, to speak a true word is to transform the world.
corners
The future isn't something hidden in a corner.The future is something we build in the present.
people world way
If it is in speaking their word that people, by naming the world, transform it, dialogue imposes itself as the way by which they achieve significance as human beings.
teaching people needs
I am dealing with people and not with things. And, because I am dealing with people, I cannot refuse my wholehearted and loving attention, even in personal matters, where I see that a student is in need of such attention.
acts-of-courage acts-of-love
Education is an act of love, and thus an act of courage
struggle reality order
In order for the oppressed to be able to wage the struggle for their liberation, they must perceive the reality of oppression not as a closed world from which there is no exit , but as a limiting situation which they can transform.
discovery long impossible
How can the oppressed, as divided, unauthentic beings, participate in developing the pedagogy of their liberation? Only as they discover themselves to be 'hosts' of the oppressor can they contribute to the midwifery of their liberating pedagogy. As long as they live in the duality in which to be is to be like and to be like is to be like the oppressor, this contribution is impossible. The pedagogy of the oppressed is an instrument for their critical discovery that both they and their oppressors are manifestations of dehumanization.
attention body pay
The earliest language was body language and, since this language is the language of questions, if we limit the questions, and if we only pay attention to or place values on spoken or written language, then we are ruling out a large area of human language.
would-be contradiction term
It would be a contradiction in terms if the oppressors not only defended but actually implemented a liberating education.
struggle responsibility essentials
It is essential for the oppressed to realize that when they accept the struggle for humanization they also accept, from that moment, their total responsibility for the struggle.
teacher reflection reality
Teachers and students (leadership and people), co-intent on reality, are both Subjects, not only in the task of unveiling that reality, and thereby coming to know it critically, but in the task of re-creating that knowledge. As they attain this knowledge of reality through common reflection and action, they discover themselves as its permanent re-creators.