Critical literacy and emancipatory politics: The work of Paulo Freire

Abstract

This paper argues that Freire's pedagogical ideas stand in marked reaction against a process of education characterised by prescription. In Freire's view, such a process consolidates sharply defined power relations and therefore perpetuates oppressive social forms. It argues that contained in Freire's pedagogy are the elements for a model of an alternative society. In the first section, attention is focused on Freire's analysis of the process of ideological domination as it takes place among the oppressed, with specific reference to the context which influenced the development of his pedagogical ideas. The second section provides an analytic exposition of the alternative pedagogy which Freire proposes with a view to contributing to what he calls ‘cultural action for freedom’. The third section consists of a discussion on the application of Freirean pedagogy in a post-revolutionary context. The pedagogy is here viewed as contributing to what Freire terms ‘cultural revolution’. Both ‘cultural action for freedom’ and ‘cultural revolution’ constitute key concepts for the development of critical literacy. Freire's pedagogy is here discussed for the most part with an industrially under-developed context in mind; for Freire's most significant pedagogical experiences were closely tied to these contexts.