Paulo Freire

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Paulo Freire

Paulo Freire (born September 19, 1921 in Recife ; † May 2, 1997 in São Paulo ) was a Brazilian educator who was influential in theory and practice and an author recognized worldwide .

Life

Paulo Freire's parents were middle class in Brazil. In his words, the mother was "nice, friendly and fair", the father was a military policeman. In the Great Depression of 1929, he had the experience of starvation. Therefore the Freires moved to Jaboatão dos Guararapes , where his father died. At the age of eleven, "Paulo Freire dedicated his life to fighting hunger so that other children never have to experience what he had experienced."

Paulo Freire was not a very successful student. After school, he first studied law and became a lawyer, but was not convinced of his profession as the lawyers defended the property of the rich. Because of this, Paulo Freire became a teacher of Portuguese. His interests lay more in philosophy , psychology , pedagogy and languages.

At the age of 23 he married the teacher Elza Maia Costa de Oliveira. This marriage produced five children. After the marriage, Freire studied education . Between 1946 and 1954, Paulo Freire was the director of the Department of Education and Culture for the State of Pernambuco . In 1946 he became a lecturer in philosophy and education at the University of Recife, where he also received his doctorate in 1959. In 1947 he started his literacy campaign . That was the time when he discovered the “culture of silence” (see below).

Paulo Freire, 1963.

In 1961 João Goulart became the new President of Brazil and supported the work of Paulo Freire. Between 1961 and 1964 was the main time of the literacy campaign according to Freire's method. On April 1, 1964, the military took power in a coup. Paulo Freire was initially placed under house arrest and later spent 70 days in prison. Then Freire decided to emigrate to Chile to avoid further imprisonment. In prison he began to write his book Education as a Practice of Freedom .

He later gave lectures at the CIDOC in Cuernavaca . In Chile, he worked with UNESCO and the Chilean training institution. His method was adopted for all state literacy programs in Chile in 1965. In 1969/70 Paulo Freire was a professor at Harvard University . In 1970 he was “Counselor of the Office of Education” at the “ World Council of Churches ” in Geneva for more than ten years . He was also President of INDEP , IDAC and UNESCO staff. He also worked with the ILO in Geneva , the FAO in Rome , the IRFED in Paris and the “Center for the Study of Development and Social Change in Cambridge (USA)”.

In 1970 Paulo Freire published the books Cultural Action for Freedom and Pedagogy of the Oppressed . The latter has been translated into 18 languages. In 1973 he published Education for Critical Consciousness and the next year Conscientization. Teoria y practica de la liberacion . In 1975 he edited the book Dialogo together with Ivan Illich . The book Pedagogy in Process emerged from his engagement in Africa . The letters to Guinea-Bissau in 1979.

In 1980 it was again possible for Paulo Freire to return to Brazil. In 1985 he published the book The Politics of Education and in 1987 - together with Ira Shor - A Pedagogy for Liberation . He also wrote countless articles in professional journals and several other books. The books listed above are the most important.

As a Catholic, Paulo Freire was very religious. On the other hand, you can call him a radical enlightener . He developed his theory from many theories. There is nothing wrong with calling Paulo Freire an eclectic . He brings together the thoughts of Descartes , Immanuel Kant , Hegel , Karl Marx , Karl Jaspers , Jean-Paul Sartre , Gabriel Marcel , Georges Bernanos , Emmanuel Mounier , Jacques Maritain , Gilberto Freyre , Claude Lévi-Strauss , Erich Fromm , Herbert Marcuse , Leszek Kołakowski , Martin Buber , Noam Chomsky and others.

Figueroa believes that Paulo Freire's theory is "most decisively shaped ... by the sociology of knowledge by Karl Mannheim , the theories of language by Ferdinand de Saussure and Carles Bully, and by the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl ."

In his works Freire repeatedly refers to the dialectic of the concrete by Karel Kosík .

In 1997, shortly before his death, he was made an honorary doctorate in the field of education at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg , but he was no longer able to accept this award personally. In 1973 he received an honorary doctorate from the Open University in Great Britain.

Literacy program

In the 1960s, Paulo Freire developed a literacy program that was not only a technique for the rapid and targeted acquisition of reading and writing , but also a method of raising awareness . Since illiterate people were not eligible to vote in Brazil at the time, literacy was a campaign of high political relevance. He himself saw his program as a step towards the democratization of Brazil.

awareness raising

Basis: Karl Mannheim's theory

“ Karl Mannheim reconstructs the historical development of man in three stages. Originally, the Horde solidarity determined interpersonal relationships. On the second level, people begin to experience themselves as individuals by competing with others. People on the level of post-individual group solidarity form the social reality in which we live today. "

Freire calls the first stage "semi-transitive consciousness" and the next stage "naive-transitive consciousness". This stage can lead to "toward critical transitivity, characteristic of a legitimately democratic mentality," or "it can deflected toward the debased, clearly dehumanized, fanaticized consciousness characteristic of massification."

Paulo Freire's anthropology

Paulo Freire presents his view of man through the difference to animals. He says, “that of the imperfect beings man is the only one who makes not only his actions but also his own self the object of his reflection .” Animals are only “beings in themselves”, “ahistorical”, “merely stimulated” and “cannot commit themselves”.

In his opinion, everyone is able to reach a critical awareness that may a. is characterized by the following features:

  • Depth in interpreting problems
  • the substitution of magical explanations by causal principles
  • Avoidance of bias in the perception of problems
  • the refusal to shift responsibility onto others
  • reject passive positions
  • the dialogue to practice and not to argue
  • to accept the new critically and not to condemn the old

The culture of silence

Paulo Freire calls the culture of the rural proletariat and slum dwellers in Brazil the culture of silence . He sees how these people surrender to their fate - "it is all God's will" - how they succumb to the myth of being worse people, and how they apathetic to their oppressors, e.g. B. Landlords, trust. Consequently, the oppressed also reject education . Their oppressors regulate everything for them. The prevailing school system is also responsible for this, as it does not address the problems of the students, but wants or has to spread knowledge based on Western models.

Counter concept

Paulo Freire wants to break the prevailing passivity . He introduces his anthropological concept of culture, "that is, the distinction between nature and culture." He believes, as Cynthia Brown continues, that a discussion of this distinction leads illiterate people to the realization that they create culture in the same way as well-read people, that culture is basically something created by humans and therefore also changeable. The distinction between culture and nature in this context also includes the difference between humans and animals and the importance of language and writing .

In order to initiate the discussion about nature and culture, people and animals and culture in people's lives, Paulo Freire had ten pictures made by a painter, which were then photographed. With the help of a slide projector, these images were thrown on the wall in the villages.

The "coordinator" starts a dialogue with the villagers who are voluntarily attending the literacy course . The slides are spoken through one after the other. Here the participants can express their "real knowledge" without being able to read or write. This encourages the participants to learn to read themselves. Paulo Freire calls this process "awareness raising". For him it is a process in which the participants are encouraged to analyze their own situation in order to then shape their own life and their own life situation.

procedure

a.) The authorities of the village are called upon to obtain their consent to the literacy program.
b.) The life and vocabulary of the community is examined.
c.) 16 generative words are coded and written on slides, posters, etc. Since Portuguese is a "syllable language", new words can be formed from different syllables.
d.) A so-called "discovery map", on which individual syllables are depicted, is developed.
e.) A room in the village is rented.
f.) Coordinators, not teachers, are selected and trained.
g.) A "culture group", not a class, is formed. It consists of 25 to 30 participants.

When the group has formed, it continues as follows:

I.) Once a week the group meets about 6 to 8 times for an hour.
II.) The first sessions are used to analyze the differences between nature and culture on the basis of the 10 slides.
III.) In the next session the first generative word is formed - with the help of the "discovery card". At the end, participants are asked to create new words from the syllables.
IV.) In the remaining sessions the other generative words are introduced individually. Participants write and read in the sessions, express their opinions and write them down. They read newspapers and discuss local events.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

In 1970, Paulo Freire's main work on liberation pedagogy was published - Pedagogy of the Oppressed . This book has been translated into 18 languages. Paulo Freire does not explicitly point out that this book is based on the experiences he made in the literacy campaign, but the basic structure is implicitly found again.

The analysis of the prevailing school system - "bankers method"

Paulo Freire calls the predominant teaching method the "bankers method". He makes his criticism clear by criticizing the positivism of his time. He claims that the supporters of positivism believe that “human consciousness is something empty and passive, in which there is nothing that should be made conscious.” As Paulo Freire writes: “The banker's concept is based on the premise of one Split between man and world: man is only in the world, but not with the world or with others. Man is a spectator, not a new creator. From this point of view, the human being is not a conscious being, rather he is the owner of a consciousness: an empty sense that is passively open to receiving deposits of reality from the outside world. "

In the bankers method, education becomes an act of savings. The teacher makes deposits in the heads of the students. The teacher's task is to “fill the pupils' minds with the content of his transmission” - with content that is detached from reality, without any connection to a larger whole that could bring it into being and give it meaning. “The more completely he fills the containers, the better a teacher he is. The more willing the containers are to be filled, the better students they are. ”Paulo Freire claims that this banker method makes students passive. They accept the world presented to them and adapt to the apparent reality. According to Paulo Freire, no critical awareness develops.

The alternative - "problem-formulating education"

“In problem-formulation education, people develop the strength to critically understand the way in which they exist in the world with which and in which they find themselves. You learn to see the world not as a static reality, but as a reality in the process, in the transformation. "

Paulo Freire's concept envisages eliminating the teacher-student contradiction that prevails in the “bankers method”. He consequently describes them as “teacher-pupil” or “pupil-teacher”. Through true dialogue between the “student-teacher” and the “teacher-student” both should reveal reality. Dialogue “cannot exist where there is a lack of deep love for the world and people”; where there is not "an intense belief in people, a belief in their power to create and create anew, to make and to create anew, belief in their calling to be full of human beings"; "without the dialogue partners opening up let in critical thinking. "

According to Paulo Freire, when analyzing dialogue , one discovers “what defines the essence of dialogue: the word ”. The word is more than an instrument that enables dialogue. Paulo Freire discovers two constitutive elements in it: reflection and action . For him, practice is also based on reflection and action.

If there is only theoretical reflection in class, the action is missing. Paulo Freire calls this “verbalism”. On the other hand, when the emphasis is more on action, there is no reflection. He calls this "actionism". Good teaching must therefore strive for a balance between reflection and action.

Communication, awareness-raising and autonomy

Since only part of Freire's entire work has been translated into German, reception in Germany is also heavily focused on these works (above all, Pedagogy of the Oppressed ). This led u. a. to the fact that Freire seems to have been increasingly forgotten. It is easy to overlook how comprehensive his oeuvre is. In particular, works such as the Pedagogia da autonomia ( pedagogy of autonomy ), Pedagogia da Esperanca ( pedagogy of hope ), A educacao na cidade ( education in the city ) or the essay Education and Community Involvement are very topical both for discussions about citizen participation and Civil society , but also to technological change . Freire's pedagogy is a pedagogy of communication , because through communication there is reflection and thus awareness building . Through this awareness raising, it is possible for people to achieve autonomy . The topicality of these concepts is already evident from the new communication and information options that present people with new challenges. Freire's pedagogy can thus provide important impulses for media pedagogy (Schwinger 2005).

Since 2007, part of the late work has also been available in German.

International reception

Freire was received intensive world, and temporarily decreased while the interest in Germany, he is in the Anglo-Saxon world, a central reference point for critical pedagogy (English Critical pedagogy remained). His most important performers in North America include Peter McLaren, Donaldo Macedo, Joe L. Kincheloe, Ira Shor and Henry Giroux .

In Mexico , the La Fundacion McLaren is continuously grappling with Freire's work.

In 1991 the Instituto Paulo Freire was founded in São Paulo in order to pursue the perspectives opened up by Freire. The institute now has projects in many countries; currently located at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies in Los Angeles.

In 1974 the “Collectif Européen Conscientization” was founded in Europe. Members were the Université de Paix (Namur), the Wereldscholen (Hasselt), the Walberberg Youth Academy (Bonn), the Working Group of Sociopolitical Working Groups (Munich), the Institut Oecuménique pour le Développement des Peuples (Paris), the Scuola Professionale Emigrati (Zurich) and the Centro di Animazione per l'Autogestione Populare (Palermo).

Over the years national institutes have sprung up all over Europe that have increasingly dealt with the ideas of Paulo Freire. The German Paulo Freire Gesellschaft eV was founded in Frankfurt am Main in 1994 and existed in this form in Munich until 2008, then moved to Berlin. In 1996 the Paulo Freire Cooperation was established as a scientific society at the University of Oldenburg. Your job is to spread the ideas of Paulo Freire.

There is also a Paulo Freire Institute at the International Academy Berlin (INA).

The Paulo and Nita Freire Project for International Critical Pedagogy was founded at McGill University . Joe L. Kincheloe and Shirley R. Steinberg try to offer a forum for the worldwide dialogue of critical scientists.

Paulo Freire's work also had an impact on Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa.

In the 1990s, a Free Evangelical School was opened in Parchim ( Mecklenburg ), which bears the name of the educator.

Under the entry "Collection Educator Paulo Freire", documents by Paulo Freire were included in the list of World Document Heritage by UNESCO in 2017 .

Awards

See also

Works

  • Pedagogy of the Oppressed , introduction by Ernst Lange , German translation authorized by the author by Werner Simpfendörfer, original title Pedagogia do Oprimido . Kreuz, Stuttgart / Berlin 1971, ISBN 3-7831-0374-6 , paperback edition: Pedagogy of the oppressed. Education as a practice of freedom (= rororo , volume 6830: rororo-Sachbuch, education and instruction), Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1973, ISBN 3-499-16830-8 .
    • engl .: Pedagogy Of The Oppressed . 32nd Printing, New York 1990
  • Education as a practice of freedom . Stuttgart-Berlin 1974
  • The teacher is a politician and an artist. New texts on liberating educational work . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1981
  • A few notions about the word "concientization" . in: R. Dale, G. Esland, M. MacDonald, M., Schooling and Capitalism: A Sociological Reader , Routledge and Kegan Paul, London 1976
  • Concientization . The Month, May 1974
  • Education: The Practice of Freedom . Writers and Readers, London 1974
  • The Politics of Education . 1985
  • A Pedagogy for Liberation . (with Ira Shor) MacMilliam, London 1987
  • Pedagogia da Autonomia . Paz e Terra, Rio de Janeiro 2001
  • Pedagogia da Esperança . Paz e Terra, Rio de Janeiro 2002
  • A Educação na Cidade . Cortez Editora, São Paulo 1995
  • Education and Community Involvement In: Castells et al .: Critical Education in the new Information Age. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham / Oxford 1999
  • Oppression and liberation , Münster; New York; Munich; Berlin: Waxmann, 2007 ISBN 3-8309-1803-8
  • Education and Hope , Münster; New York; Munich; Berlin: Waxmann, 2007 ISBN 3-8309-1856-9
  • Pedagogy of Autonomy: Necessary Knowledge for Educational Practice , Münster; New York, NY; Munich; Berlin: Waxmann, 2008, ISBN 3-8309-1870-4

literature

  • Cynthia Brown: Literacy in 30 Hours: Paulo Freire's Process in Northeast Brazil . in: Social Policy 5 (1974)
  • Renè Bendit, Achim Heimbuchner: Learning from Paulo Freire, A New Approach to Education and Social Work. Series German Youth Institute - Analyzes Volume 10, Juventa, Munich 1977, ISBN 3-7799-0214-1 .
  • Dimas Figueroa: Paulo Freire for an introduction. Junius, Hamburg 1989, ISBN 3-88506-847-8 .
  • Jesús Hernández : Pedagogy of Being: Paulo Freire's practical theory of emancipatory adult education. Aschenbach 1977
  • Robert Mackie (Ed.): Literacy and Revolution: The Pedagogy of Paulo Freire . London 1980
  • Peter Mayo: Political education with Antonio Gramsci and Paulo Freire: Perspectives of a changing practice. Argument, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-88619-280-6 .
  • Bernhard Mann : The Pedagogical and Political Concepts of Mahatma Gandhi and Paulo Freire . In: Bernhard Claußen (Ed.) International Studies in Political Socialization and Political Education. Vol. 8. Hamburg 1995
  • Flavia Mädche: Can learning really be fun? The dialogue in the educational concept of Paulo Freire. ( agspak-buecher.de )
  • Michael Schwinger: “You can even be a photographer!” Media educational work with Brazilian street children . IKO Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-88939-785-0 , (Diploma thesis at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences 2003/2004 under the title of using media as an instrument for educational work with street children in Brazil. )
  • Kira Funke: Paulo Freire, work, effect and topicality. (= Interactionist Constructivism,, Volume 9), Waxmann, Münster u. a. 2010, ISBN 978-3-830-92355-8 , (dissertation University of Cologne 2010).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Richard Shaull, In: Pedagogy Of The Oppressed. 32nd Printing, New York 1990, p. 10 (translated)
  2. ↑ Figueroa, p. 15
  3. ↑ Figueroa, S37f
  4. ^ Education: The Practice of Freedom, 1974, p. 17
  5. ↑ ibid, p. 20
  6. ↑ cf. ibid, p. 18
  7. ↑ Cynthia Brown, p. 26
  8. ↑ Figueroa, p. 24
  9. ^ Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. P. 60f
  10. ↑ ibid, p. 57
  11. ↑ ibid
  12. ↑ ibid, p. 88
  13. ↑ ibid, p. 84
  14. ↑ a b ibid, p. 74
  15. ↑ ibid., P. 71
  16. ↑ MacLaren, Peter (ed.): Paulo Freire: a critical encounter , London a. a .: Routledge, 1993
  17. ^ Fundacion McLaren, Tijuana, Mexico . Retrieved August 16, 2014 (Spanish).
  18. ^ Paulo Freire Institute, UCLA
  19. ^ Paulo Freire Cooperation eV
  20. ^ Paulo Freire Institute (PFI), Berlin. Retrieved August 4, 2016
  21. ^ The Freire Project. The Paulo and Nita Freire International Project for Critical Pedagogy. Retrieved August 16, 2014.
  22. ↑ Collection Educator Paulo Freire | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Accessed March 15, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Freire, Paulo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Brazilian educator, lawyer, historian, philosopher and author
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Recife
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 1997
Place of death São Paulo