What do you think?
Rate this book
Reading Freire and Habermas: Critical Pedagogy and Transformative Social Change
In this book, two well-known scholars of critical educational studies provide a compelling introduction to the thoughts of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire and German critical theorist Jürgen Habermas. While there are many other books about these influential thinkers, this is the first to compare their theories in-depth and situate their thinking in relation to other social theories and philosophies of education. The authors demonstrate that, despite their differences, these philosophers share crucial views on science, society, critical social psychology, and educational praxis that are mutually illuminating and offer a new point of departure for a critical theory of education. The book is organized around the following (a) Freire’s and Habermas’s philosophies of the social sciences as a form of critical social theory; (b) their theories of society; (c) the critical social psychology that underlies their conception of the dialogical and developmental subject; and (d) the implications of their overall perspective for educational practice “Few people have been as influential in helping us understand the relationship between culture and power as Freire and Habermas. Morrow and Torres creatively compare the two and in the process demonstrate how much we have to learn from them.”
― Michael W. Apple , John Bascom Professor of Education, University of Wisconsin–Madison
― Michael W. Apple , John Bascom Professor of Education, University of Wisconsin–Madison
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
3 people are currently reading
27 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 21, 2019
1 – Introduction: Reading Freire Through Habermas
p.1 – Paulo Freire (1921-1997), an educator born in Brazil and later forced into exile for many years, is perhaps the best-known figure internationally in postwar adult education. […] His contribution is a methodology based on a distinction between banking education, through which knowledge is mechanically accumulated, and critical education, in which the learner becomes an active participant in the appropriation of knowledge in relation to lived experience.
p.2 – Habermas is generally regarded as the most important contemporary representative of critical theory, a term that alludes to the tradition of critical social theory originating in the Frankfurt School in Germany in the late 1920s. The Frankfurt School’s research institute became the basis of the first systematic and autonomous attempt to explore the potential of Marx’s historical materialism as a scientifically credible research program. By the end of the Second World War, the members of the Frankfurt School had become disillusioned with the Marxian tradition. In the 1960s, however, Habermas developed a strategy for revitalizing critical theory through its radical reconstruction and engagement with other theoretical traditions. In breaking with key assumptions of both classical Marxism and the older Frankfurt tradition, Habermas’ theory of communicative action assumed a distinctive form for which the contentious label “Marxist” no longer appears appropriate.
p.12 – bell hooks (1993): “Paulo was one of the thinkers whose words gave me a language. He made me think deeply about the construction of an identity in resistance. There was this one sentence of Freire’s that became a revolutionary mantra for me: ‘We cannot enter the struggle as objects in order to later become subjects.’ (bell hooks, “Speaking about Paulo Freire – The Man, His Work,” in P. McLaren and P. Leonard (eds.), Paulo Freire: A Critical Encounter. New York: Routledge 1993, 146-154, p.148)
2 – Modernity and German Idealism
p.18 – “The best way to understand is to do. That which we learn most thoroughly, and remember the best, is what we have in a way taught ourselves.” (I. Kant. Kant on Education. Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1992, pp.80-81)
4 – Theories of History and Society
p.75 – A key aspect of Freire’s and Habermas’ diagnoses of the present is how to conceive the consciousness and motivational character of the social subjects that are to advance the process of democratization. For Freire this issue is closely linked to a process of consciousness transformation required for overcoming “naïve” consciousness in traditional societies. For Habermas, domination is linked in modernized societies to the “fragmentary” forms of consciousness that are unable to resist encroachments on the lifeworld.
p.1 – Paulo Freire (1921-1997), an educator born in Brazil and later forced into exile for many years, is perhaps the best-known figure internationally in postwar adult education. […] His contribution is a methodology based on a distinction between banking education, through which knowledge is mechanically accumulated, and critical education, in which the learner becomes an active participant in the appropriation of knowledge in relation to lived experience.
p.2 – Habermas is generally regarded as the most important contemporary representative of critical theory, a term that alludes to the tradition of critical social theory originating in the Frankfurt School in Germany in the late 1920s. The Frankfurt School’s research institute became the basis of the first systematic and autonomous attempt to explore the potential of Marx’s historical materialism as a scientifically credible research program. By the end of the Second World War, the members of the Frankfurt School had become disillusioned with the Marxian tradition. In the 1960s, however, Habermas developed a strategy for revitalizing critical theory through its radical reconstruction and engagement with other theoretical traditions. In breaking with key assumptions of both classical Marxism and the older Frankfurt tradition, Habermas’ theory of communicative action assumed a distinctive form for which the contentious label “Marxist” no longer appears appropriate.
p.12 – bell hooks (1993): “Paulo was one of the thinkers whose words gave me a language. He made me think deeply about the construction of an identity in resistance. There was this one sentence of Freire’s that became a revolutionary mantra for me: ‘We cannot enter the struggle as objects in order to later become subjects.’ (bell hooks, “Speaking about Paulo Freire – The Man, His Work,” in P. McLaren and P. Leonard (eds.), Paulo Freire: A Critical Encounter. New York: Routledge 1993, 146-154, p.148)
2 – Modernity and German Idealism
p.18 – “The best way to understand is to do. That which we learn most thoroughly, and remember the best, is what we have in a way taught ourselves.” (I. Kant. Kant on Education. Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1992, pp.80-81)
4 – Theories of History and Society
p.75 – A key aspect of Freire’s and Habermas’ diagnoses of the present is how to conceive the consciousness and motivational character of the social subjects that are to advance the process of democratization. For Freire this issue is closely linked to a process of consciousness transformation required for overcoming “naïve” consciousness in traditional societies. For Habermas, domination is linked in modernized societies to the “fragmentary” forms of consciousness that are unable to resist encroachments on the lifeworld.
September 3, 2012
In this book, two well-known scholars of critical educational studies provide a compelling introduction to the thoughts of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire and German critical theorist Jurgen Habermas. While there are many other books about these influential thinkers, this is the first to compare their theories in-depth and situate their thinking in relation to other social theories and philosophies of education. The authors demonstrate that, despite their differences, these philosophers share crucial views on science, society, critical social psychology, and educational praxis that are mutually illuminating and offer a new point of departure for a critical theory of education. The book is organized around the following themes: (a) Freire and Habermas’ philosophies of the social sciences as a form of critical social theory; (b) their theories of society; (c) the critical social psychology that underlies their conception of the dialogical and developmental subject; and (d) the implications of their overall perspective for educational practice.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews