Freire, Paulo

Life and Work of Paulo Freire

Freire was a twentieth century educator, writer, philosopher, public intellectual and political activist. He was a legend in his own lifetime and today is one of the most widely known educational theorists. His contributions to PAR can be better understood if they are related to his educational ideas and projects, and these, in turn, cannot be isolated from his personal biography and from the geographical and historical contexts in which he lived. The fact that he was born and raised in one of the poorest and most unequal regions of the world, and that his family experienced economic hardship during his childhood, helps to explain his sensitivity to issues of social inequality and his orientation towards social justice. Likewise, the different religious orientations espoused by his parents and his exposure to the liberation theology movement during his youth helps to explain his emphasis on diversity and his commitment to social equality and the emancipation of the poor. Moreover, the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s in Latin America and elsewhere explain his emphasis on grass-roots participatory development and on social transformation.

Freire was born in 1921 in northeast Brazil, the youngest of four children, to a church-oriented Catholic mother and a Spiritist father. From early childhood, he adopted his mother's religion. His father, a police officer, respected that decision and even attended his First Communion ceremony. In examining his past, Freire said that with this and other similar gestures, his father taught him the importance of respecting the ideas of others even if he did not agree with them. Through conversations with his father, the young Paulo was introduced for the first time to information about the social injustices and political struggles in Brazil. He learned from his parents to read and write at a very early age. They taught him literacy skills as a game, having him write his own words on the earth with a stick. Interestingly, years later, Freire became famous for developing a literacy method that started with the reality and the vocabulary of learners and not with words chosen by curriculum developers. During his adolescence, in the context of the economic crisis of the 1930s, Freire's family struggled to make ends meet. The experience of living in poverty among poor rural families helped young Paulo become more aware of the social world around him and develop a sense of respect for and solidarity with all human beings, regardless of their background.

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