Born 1921
Recife, Brazil
Died May 2, 1997
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Educator, literacy advocate, social reformer, and author
Paulo Freire believed that the world’s oppressed millions of illiterate adults had a right to an education. He asserted that literacy programs should be developed by students and teachers together and not imposed on the students by privileged outsiders. Freire’s method of teaching adults to read was based on each student’s particular needs. He used words and concepts significant to the lives of his students and incorporated dialogue and problem-solving in his methods.
Through the educational process students (typically peasants or poor workers) learned about their place in the world. They gained the skills they needed to critically assess the social policies and practices responsible for the social order. At the same time, they learned how to challenge the status quo. It was Freire’s belief that education was the key to freedom from oppression, as well as reaching one’s full human potential. Many of the social movements of the 1970s, in the United States and elsewhere, were influenced by Freire’s philosophy of education for political empowerment.
Freire was born in 1921 in Recife, in northeastern Brazil.
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