Paulo Freire

During the second half of 2013 it was conducted in a Municipal School of Early Childhood Education (EMEI), located in the south of the city of São Paulo, a research-intervention involving six teachers who were part of the teaching group EMEI. The research aimed to assign new meanings and directions to the continuing education of teachers who work with children 4-5 years and as a theoretical and methodological fundamentals of action-reflection-action, recommended by Paulo Freire.

Freire (2009, p.117) highlights the importance of reflection on educational practice saying,

Clarifying a point here naked and there, it needs also to be unveiled. This is the dynamics of the process of thinking about practice. That’s why we think the practice teaches to think better, just as teaches to practice better.

Based on this assumption, the researcher, who serves as educational coordinator in the universe of the research school, used strategies for the practice itself is transformed into individual and collective reflection object, in order to redirect educational activities.

Group of researchers at the University Nove and teachers.

The research began when I joined the Master in Management and Educational Practices of the University Nove (UNINOVE), and elaborated a project in the initial uneasiness pervaded the need for reflection and discussion about continuing education for teachers in service city ​of São Paulo happens and what are the contributions of this in practice of teachers of early childhood education.
Not uncommon is how often the moments of training in schools have been busy with reports, document filling, organizing events, readings schedules for compliance and other “bureaucratic activities.” Given this reality, it is crucial that changes occur in the practice of educational coordinators that are ahead of formative processes within schools as well as in the practice of teachers, taking as their own training authors. We need to rethink the moments of training so it has based on the reflection on practice and involve (the) teacher (o) for this (e) actively participate in this process.

For the development of intervention research stages were developed that favored the process of action-reflection-action, recommended by Freire. The strategies developed for the unveiling, the questioning and reflection on the practice were: dialogue with the teachers on planning of activities with the children; observation of the realization of the proposed activities; dialogue with each of the pairs of teachers of the observed rooms and socializing with other teachers during the times of formation of JEIF group (Special Day of Integral Formation), records and reflections systematized after the feedback session with the double. At all stages, the procedures used were: written record in a field diary; record of observations made by the researcher/coordinator; audio records and transcription of the material; preparation of summaries of conversations conducted in times of fed back with the double.

The research had as axis the use of the teaching practice record. I, as a researcher-coordinator, recorded activities that watched – with pictures and considerations/questions to be shared with teachers – and they recorded the activity plan and the comments made during this. From the socialization of records, summaries were made that were shared with a larger group of teachers, enabling new thinking. These reflections contributed to practice with the children and the professional growth of the teachers and the educational coordinator.

Pedagogia do Oprimido, Paulo Freire

What is lost during dictatorial regimes?
Freedom of expression, communication, production, social participation, democratic management and right to the city, the country. But not only.
In dictatorial times, the country turns against his own society. If, in Brazil 24 years ago, the Civil Military Dictatorship left irreparable losses related to the fight against illiteracy, exiling the educator Paulo Freire, in other countries, the exile still aborts political struggles beyond measure.

The year 2015 has barely begun and already is marked by countless deaths of citizens who try to cross the Mediterranean Sea escaping from dictatorships that devastate their countries. About 1.800 people, coming from Africa and the Middle East, died in the Mediterranean this year in an attempt to reach a “safe haven” where the right to life is respected. Men and women were forced to flee from countries such as Syria, Mali, Eritrea and Somalia, for example, expelled from their territory by war, political persecution, religious and ethnic.

According to data released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 218.000 refugees and immigrants crossed the Mediterranean Sea in 2014. The illegality of migration act of this huge number of people puts them in the category of refugees. Played on their own, they leave their countries in order to prolong their lives, threatened in their countries of origin. Situation similar to that experienced by Paulo Freire when he was forced to leave Brazil, in September 1964.

Paulo Freire, forced immigrant

Born in Recife, September 19, 1921, Paulo Freire has always been “very acclimated to the northeastern culture,” as his son Lutgardes Freire tells. At 10 years old, the educator moved to Jabotão and grew up there. He tells, in reports made to Moacir Gadotti, personal friend of Freire, that as he saw his body grow, also felt his passion for knowledge increase.

In January 1964 Paulo Freire launched in Brasilia the National Literacy Program – NAP (see more details in the Bulletin Unifreire edition 3 – 2014, the year of cinquentenários). The program was the translation of passions, of loveliness and solidarity of the teacher towards his homeland. It had previwed to achieve five million illiterated brazilians, however, 83 days after its signing, settled in Brazil the dictatorial regime and, with it, the persecution of all those who were engaged with ideas contrary to the order of the day. From April to September 1964, Paulo Freire was forced to go to the Rio de Janeiro to meet military police investigations. Thus, under threat of being arrested and tortured, the educator exiled himself in Bolivia at first.

Freire’s forced migration caused enormous and immeasurable losses to the social, cultural and educational evolution of Brazilian society. The political struggles of which he was in were abandoned and suffocated by Dictatorial Regime. The National Program for Literacy conceived and coordinated by Freire was annulled, passing Brazil to be directed by an authoritarian, violent government.

After a coup in Bolivia, shortly after his arrival, the teacher went to Chile, where he lived for five years with his children and wife. Freire also lived in America for eleven months, but was in Switzerland where he remained for more time to return to Brazil. He lived there for ten years. Despite the adversity, Paulo Freire followed seeking to transform reality, to transform the world. He worked on several projects. He was, among others, adviser to Desarollo Agropecuario Institute and the Ministry of Education of Chile, UNESCO consultant, university professor in the US, Special Adviser of the Department of the World Council of Churches Education.

By the World Council of Churches, he walked trhough Africa, Asia, Oceania and America, except Brazil, where he ran the risk of becoming a political prisoner. He developed projects in countries that had just achieved independence, such as Cape Verde, Angola and Guinea-Bissau. In Guinea he developed a youth and adult literacy project that significantly marked the educational process of the country, as detailed in Memory section of Bulletin Unifreire number 4, September 2014.

During the exile , Freire and colleague of IDAC developed an important adult education project in Guinea Bissau

The requirement to change country and adapt repeatedly to new languages ​​and cultures, imposed to the family of Paulo Freire not only abandoning their land and its people, but also the face of prejudice and discrimination situations. In talks with Frei Beto, Freire said that exile was deeply teaching. Being forced to live in other countries, the educator had a chance to understand himself and understand Brazil better. He reports:

“It was just getting away from it, worried about it, I wondered about it. And when he asked me about it, I wondered what they did with other Brazilians, thousands of Brazilians of the young generation and my generation. Was taking away what I did, to take the interim context, I could better understand what I did and I could better prepare myself to continue doing something out of my context and also I prepare for a possible return to Brazil. ”
Excerpt from a conversation with Frei Betto, taken from the book “The school called life” (pp 56-8.) – In Paulo Freire: A Biobibliography.

In the video below, his youngest son, Lutgardes Freire tells us about the experience of exile in a child’s perspective. It reports, for example, which was called “Lut – garbage” in the United States.

Relearning Brazil

“Sixteen years of absence require a learning and greater intimacy with Brazil today. I came to relearn Brazil. ”
(Paulo Freire, still at the airport upon his return to Brazil In Paulo Freire:. Biobibliography one.)

The return of Paulo Freire in Brazil was a historic moment for education in Brazil. After several attempts to get his passport in Brazilian consular representations in different countries, Paulo Freire finally gets the document thanks to a writ of mandamus.

In June 1980, at age 57, Paulo Freire landed at Viracopos airport in Campinas, definitely returning to the country he had left in 64, under the command of the military. His desire was to resume the functions at the University of Pernambuco, but the restrictions still imposed prevented. He settled in São Paulo. He accepted an invitation to teach at the Faculty of Education at Unicamp, in Campinas and soon after joined the Postgraduate Studies Program in Education (supervision and curriculum) at PUC / SP.

Newspaper story about the return of Freire .

Paulo Freire participated in the founding of the Vereda – Center for Studies in Education, also in São Paulo, whose goal was to develop research, provide advice and act in teacher education dedicated to the practice of popular education. He involves thus the movements of teachers, popular education movements and the struggle of the working class with young educators, valuing them and developing learning work together. He lived moments of great knowledge and productivity throughout her relearning of Brazil.

Veiled losses, forced departures

Impossible to analyze Freire’s exile in comparison to illegal immigration in the Mediterranean. The teacher returned to Brazil in 1979 and was warmly greeted by family and friends, with the task of “re-learn” their country, as reported at the time. But it is not the same way 1.800 people may have their destinations narrated. The brutality of authoritarian regimes in their countries, in addition to low travel conditions of this population led them to a path of no return.

For the 218.000 immigrants who have succeeded in their crossings by the Mediterranean Sea, it is not difficult to predict the course of their lives. With strong xenophobic wave plaguing Europe since the 2008 crisis, immigrants, legal and illegal, are considered strange beings to the territory, enemies, people who arrive in order to occupy jobs that could be filled by Europeans. Renegade and illegal, the 218.000 people who try their luck in foreign countries leave their past, their history, their training, their knowledge and often live as paupers in other lands.

Although course, different histories and conditions, a link joins Freire not only to 218.000 illegal immigrants who crossed the Mediterranean in 2014, but all who are expelled from their countries at risk of life: the political struggle.

Just as the exile of the popular educator was prejudicial to combating illiteracy in Brazil, this wound that is felt to date, the diaspora population characteristic of authoritarian countries has also sad consequences for their societies. The reading of the World and the wealth of knowledge that these immigrants bring with them to leave, are losses that set in large “gaps” in the political struggles in favor of the “ragged of the world.”

It is not possible to measure or to count how much each country loses in relation to social and educational development, if we consider the political struggles disrupted when leaders, like Paulo Freire, find themselves forced to migrate to survive.

(Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Opressed)

June 24, 2014 it is going to be held at Teatro Juarez Machado, in Joinville, the VIII “Seminar Freire”. The event, organized in a collective way by teachers and students of Pedagogy, is going to count on the presence of the educator Ângela Antunes, pedagogical director of the Paulo Freire Institute of Brazil.

The seminar aims to provide the entire community in the area of education, a space for academic and professional reflection, encouraging research during the formation of teachers, fostering thinking and intervening scientifically in reality. It aims to strengthen the role of research in academic practice, to disseminate research carried out by professionals INESA, providing a space of “exchanges” between participants.

The previous Freirian seminars had strong repercussions in the region. With the participation of students in courses and Magisterium Regular High School from other schools and courses Undergraduate students from other institutions of higher education, including the neighboring municipalities.

Answering to our invitation, organizations with offices in several countries in America, Africa, Europe and Asia, shared news and articles about their projects or accomplishments that strengthen and continue the freirian legacy.

Education experiences for youth and adults held in Brazil, shared by educators from the Municipality of Caeté and from MOVA-Brazil project, socialize results that inspire new actions in this area. They reaffirm the important role of social inclusion through education, as a tool for reconstruction of destinations and the achievement of the right to full and participatory citizenship.

Testimonials from representatives of Paulo Freire Institute of Cape Verde and the Angolan Civil Society Network for Education for All, present to us viewpoints from the African continent, visibly “soggy” of Paulo Freire and Amilcar Cabral’s thought.

The presence of the European continent in this issue of the Bulletin is present by the shared acts of the Center Paulo Freire from Austria and the Paulo Freire Institute in Italy. Both are going to develop two important activities in 2014. Austrian group is holding the 6th Austrian Development Conference and the Italian is leading the coordination of the IX International Meeting of Paulo Freire Forum, which is taking the city of Turin as host, in September of this year.

The “Community Highlight” in this edition is the Paulo Freire Institute from India, which since 2004 has been conducting important actions to develop and strengthen the practice of Freire’s philosophy in that country. One of them is the translation of Paulo Freire’s texts for multiple languages, including bengalli. The same challenge is being embraced by another Asian country, Pakistan, where Iraj Education & Development Foundation has already made translations of Paulo Freire’s books for urdu language.

The section “Articles” brings important contributions of educators from Colombia, Mexico, from Cape Verde and Brazil, who share research and accomplishments, provoking reflections from different realities and viewpoints.
We appreciate the participation of all people who were willing to build with us this way, establishing links, building links, exposing and enhancing actions that bring us closer to our common dreams.

“Our utopia, our healthy insanity is to create a world in which power is based on ethics in such a way that without it, esfacele not survive. (…) This is, after all, the dream substantively democratic we aspire to, if consistently progressive. Dream of this world, however, is not enough for it to happen. We need to fight tirelessly to build it.”
Freire, Paulo. Book of Prophecy: Brazil in the third millennium. Brasilia, 1997.

Let’s stick together!

Participate in the next issues of the Bulletin UniFreire sending contributions to one or more sections through secretaria@unifreire.org

Sheila Ceccon
Coordinator of UNIFREIRE
Angela Antunes
Paulo Roberto Padilha
Pedagogical Directors of Paulo Freire Institute – Brazil

Contributed to this issue:

Angola:Vitor Barbosa of AAEA (Associação Angolana para Educação de Adultos)

Austria: – Nadine Mittempergher – Paulo Freire Center

Brazil: Anderson Fernandes de Alencar, Guilherme Barbeiro, Ísis Brandão, Ana Luísa Vieira, Janaína Abreu, Deisy Boscaratto, Moacir Gadotti and George Santos Silva of Paulo Freire Institute/Brasil; José Pereira Peixoto and Carolina Rezende Souza of Faculdade de Educação da Universidade Estadual de Minas Gerais; Afonson Celso Scocuglia of Universidade Federal da Paraíba; Lia Pinheiro Barbosa of Universidade Estadual do Ceará; Vilde Luiza Damônico of Instituto Superior Santo Antônio

Cape Verde: Florenço Mendes Varela of Instituto Paulo Freire/Cabo Verde

Colombia: Carmen Elisa Cantillo García of Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación Universidad del Atlántico

United States: Carlos Alberto Torres of Paulo Freire Institute

India: Afzal Hossain of Instituto Paulo Freire/Índia

Mexico: Diego Del Río from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Méxic

Pakistan: Irshad of EDF (Iraj Education & Development Foundation)

Portugal: Luíza Cortesão of Paulo Freire Institute/Portugal; Augustinho dos Reis Monteiro of Instituto da Educação

(Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Hope)

This volume focuses on the ethical significance of human rights, aiming at contributing to a universal culture of human rights with deep roots and wide horizons. Its purpose, scope and rationale are reflected in the three-part structure of the manuscript. Part I has a broad introductory historical, theoretical and legal character. Part II submits that an Ethics of Human Rights is best understood as an Ethics of Recognition of human worth, dignity and rights. Moreover, it is argued that human worth consists in the perfectibility of the human species, rooted in its semiotic nature, to be accomplished through the perfecting of human beings, for which the right to education is key. In Part III, the main legal and political outcomes of the Human Rights Revolution are described and answers to the most lasting and common criticisms of human rights are provided.

The book can be accessed through the link:http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-03566-6

(Paulo Freire, Educators street, a critical approach)

The book “Paulo Freire – Pedagogue of the Right to Education”, written by A. Reis Monteiro, share reflections and arguments in order to recognize the contributions of  Paulo Freire’s work in the perception of education as a human right. After a general introduction, the book presents a brief profile of the right to education in the world.

The book can be found at the link: http://www.leyaonline.com/pt/pesquisa/pesquisa.php?chave=paulo+freire

(Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Indignation)

Author: Afonso Celso Scocuglia
Publisher: DP et Alii / FAPERJ (RJ, 2013, 208p.)

To organize this book we sat articles, chapters and parts of books published in Brazil and abroad, plus two unpublished texts. All of them were reviewed, amended and/or supplemented by the reading of the Freire’s work and our own writings .

In the Introduction, the striking aspects of educator’s life and work, with some changes in language, come from the article published in the newspaper of Paraíba ( João Pessoa , 1997) and reproduced in other periodicals, shortly after the educator death. Part I of the book contains the historical context and procedures of the military coup that banned the execution of the “Paulo Freire method”. They were part of my doctoral thesis ( UFPe , 1997). The article Origins and prospects of Paulo Freire’s political-pedagogical thoughts, placed below ( Part II ) , was published in Education and Research newspaper , Faculty of Education, University of São Paulo ( USP , 1999) . Translated and supplemented , this article was also published as Origines et évolutions de la pensée politico-pédagogique of Paulo Freire (Révue RELIANCE, Lyon/France, 2007) with Jean – Claude Regnier.

In Part III, there are reflections on the influence of Amilcar Cabral and in the work in Africa in Freire’s praxis (1970) that are the result of a conference where I have spoken at the opening of an International Meeting of the Paulo Freire Forum, held in Praia, capital of Cabo Verde (Africa, 2010). In the sequence of the book, the concepts of “awareness in the postmodern transition” present in Freire’s work (Part IV ) composed the article published in the newspaper Education, Society & Culture, University of Porto ( Portugal , 2005). The learning, the knowledge and the construction of a curriculum in Freire’s perspective are the article ( Part V ) published in the Newspaper of Education Lusophone University of Humanities and Technologies (Lisbon, Portugal , 2005). The focus of the critical-reflective political educator training was written based on the book The story of Paulo Freire’s ideas and the current crisis of paradigms , of our own authorship (Joao Pessoa, 2006), and forming Part VI of the book. Two unpublished texts in terms of publication (Parts VII and VIII ), presented at conferences in Brazil (Unisinos , USP , Unicamp and UFPB) and abroad (University of Madeira and Université de Lyon) , make the following book: “Paulo Freire and the pedagogy of the research ” and ” Paulo Freire and the construction of popular public school.” Reflection on the ‘education of youth and adults people in the history of the present time”, in UNESCO’s vision which is convergent with Freire’s historical proposals (Part IX ), was published in Social movements and adult education in Ibero-America ( Liber Book, 2011 ). It demonstrates how present, relevance his legacy is, as well it has theoretical connections. In this same sense, Paulo Freire’s social pedagogy as a counterpoint of globalized pedagogy, it was firstly published in Social Pedagogy book (Publisher Expression and Art/USP, 2008) corresponds to Part X of the book .

In concluding remarks, the theoretical connections that strengthen the freirian legacy point , in my view , the main wealth and the real possibilities , present and future ones, of Paulo Freire’s proposals.

(Paulo Freire, Education and the brazilian present)

The Loyola publisher recently reissued “Paulo Freire” series and released the book Dialogue and educational praxis - A critical reading of Paulo Freire. The publication with studies about Paulo Freire, by the author Carlos Alberto Torres, was first released in Brazil in 1979 and was divided into three books: Conscience and History – The educational praxis of Paulo Freire; Dialogue with Paulo Freire, and Critical Reading of Paulo Freire.

Now, to commemorate 50 years of Angicos (RN), the company publishes this work, which is still current and allows contact with the main Freirian categories. The book also brings texts prefaced by renowned people as the director of the Paulo Freire Institute, Moacir Gadotti, the congresswoman Luiza Erundina and the great philosopher and educator Mario Sergio Cortella.

The author Carlos Alberto Torres, one of the founders of the Paulo Freire Institute, this work recalls moments of 1963 when a possible dream was born: to build a nation based on emancipatory education. It also reveals a literacy project designed to be a national project. That dream was interrupted in 1964 by military coup.

“I believe that the publication of this work by Loyola comes at a good time of resumption of Paulo Freire’s ideas in Brazil, in the moment that he was ‘pardoned’ (2009) and declared ‘patron of Brazilian education’ (2012). It is an opportune time to resume his originating ideas and make them ethos of Brazilian education”, wrote Moacir Gadotti in the preface of this book.”

(Paulo Freire, The importance of the act of reading)

In his new book, ”First Freire: Early Writings in Social Justice Education”, Carlos Alberto Torres, an internationally renowned critical theorist of education, explores the early writings of Paulo Freire whose ideas have had a tremendous and long-lasting impact on the world of pedagogy and politics. Torres analyzes Freire’s works, from the 1960s and 1970s, before Freire gained worldwide recognition for his Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Offering an in-depth look into the formative thinking of Freire, Torres identifies how his ideas produced frameworks for educating global citizens, building community and mutual respect, creating social responsibility, instilling an appreciation for diversity, promoting multiple literacies, and social justice education. This volume is the result of more than 3 decades of research drawn from Freire’s personal library and the archives of the Paulo Freire Institute, as well as the author’s extensive conversations with Paulo Freire.

Carlos Alberto Torres is a political sociologist and professor of social sciences and comparative education, associate dean for global programs and founding director of the Paulo Freire Institute. To read more about the work of this institution, visit the edition number 02 of the Unifreire Bulletin and read the news “Three Notes on Paulo Freire Institute – UCLA”.

(Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Indignation)

In the frist semester of 2014, Moderna Publisher has launched the Professor Moacir Gadotti’s book “For a national policy for youth and adults popular education“.

“In Brazil, priority was given to the education of children through a national pact . The decision is right and fair. However, for those children and young people actually have a better future , they must rely on timely and effective support from their families. In Brazil our children and youth people will not attain a freer, more participatory , more conscious and happier life alone. They need adults. It is the family as a whole that needs to free itself from the precarious conditions of their lives by freeing themselves definitively and consistently from illiteracy. We can not and we must not separate children youth people education of adult education . It would be a severe mistake, and this mistake compromises the building of the country we want. A country built as a fair, inclusive, sustenaible and jointly productive society . We need a pact for the elimination of illiteracy in young people , adults and seniors . These are the ideas defended by the educator Moacir Gadotti in this book “