Learning to Question: A Pedagogy of Liberation

by Paulo Freire

In this "spoken" book the authors engage in a wide-ranging, stimulating conversation on a variety of topics. Both have been exiled from their own countries and they share with each other the devastating, disorienting experience of exile, and also the enrichment, the new perspectives it brings to those who accept its challenges. Through vivid personal anecdotes and philosophical reflections on a number of related themes, these partners in dialogue express their deep commitment to the cause of the liberation of the oppressed.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction

Paperback

Published January 1, 1989

About the author

The Brazilian educator Paulo Freire is among most the influential educational thinkers of the late 20th century. Born in Recife, Brazil, on September 19, 1921, Freire died of heart failure in Sao Paulo, Brazil on May 2, 1997. After a brief career as a lawyer, he taught Portuguese in secondary schools from 1941-1947. He subsequently became active in adult education and workers' training, and became the first Director of the Department of Cultural Extension of the University of Recife (1961-1964).

Freire quickly gained international recognition for his experiences in literacy training in Northeastern Brazil. Following the military coup d'etat of 1964, he was jailed by the new government and eventually forced into a political exile that lasted fifteen-years.

In 1969 he was a visiting scholar at Harvard University and then moved to Geneva, Switzerland where he assumed the role of special educational adviser to the World Congress of Churches. He returned to Brazil in 1979.

Freire's most well known work is Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970). Throughout this and subsequent books, he argues for system of education that emphasizes learning as an act of culture and freedom. He is most well known for concepts such as "Banking" Education, in which passive learners have pre-selected knowledge deposited in their minds; "Conscientization", a process by which the learner advances towards critical consciousness; the "Culture of Silence", in which dominated individuals lose the means by which to critically respond to the culture that is forced on them by a dominant culture. Other important concepts developed by Freire include: "Dialectic", "Empowerment", "Generative Themes/Words", "Humanization", "Liberatory Education", "Mystification", "Praxis", " Problematization", and "Transformation of the World".

http://www.education.miami.edu/ep/con...

Reviews

[feux d'artifice · Rating 5 out of 5]

The format of this book was really interesting, it's a transcription of a conversation between Freire and Faundez over a series of days, I liked seeing the dialogue between them.

The parts that really stuck to me that I noted down in my bullet journal were the sections when they were talking about their experience in exile, the stuff about asking questions and curiosity, the ties to health/science/nutrition and popular education, and language. I became really curious about Pedagogy In Process after reading this so that book is very probably my next Paulo Freire read.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a light read but an invigorating one - a conversation more than a book but lends itself to the topics of exile, culture, education, revolution and a better world. I am so inspired by Freire.

[Autumn Riehemann · Rating 4 out of 5]

a lot of really good discussion topics and ideas surrounding knowledge, power, revolution, and critical thinking

[Drick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a "talking book" (i.e. a transcripted conversation) between two Brazilian community educators, Antonio Faundez and Paulo Freire. They discuss thir work in the Portugese speaking countries of Africa (Guinea-Bissau, Mazambique, angola) and their attempts to apply they principles of empowerment through literacy that was their trademark. While there are a number of "nuggets" in this book, wihtout a clear understanding of the larger context of their work, it is a bit hard to follow.

[quasialidia · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excelent introduction to the importance of dialogue for philosophy, personal growth, personal and social transformation and education in general. Building off and revaluating the previous work of, as well as the lives of both Freire and Antonion Faundez, this little book akso offers a great meditation on the intersections of exile and knowledge.