https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6040-5745
Abstract
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
2021 marked the centenary of the birth of one of the most influential educators of all time: Brazilian-born, Paulo Freire. Truly a global educator, Freire’s work has contributed to many reflections in the social sciences, as well as to debates involving economics, politics, culture, and critical social issues such as gender, race, and environmental justice. Moreover, discussions on the role of education, and particularly as it involves power, politics, coloniality, justice and social action, are related to education as a means of social transformation.
Paulo Freire’s work has reached a global dimension. His masterpiece, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, is considered one of the foundational texts on critical pedagogy – a philosophy of education that holds that teaching and learning cannot be detached from politics, democracy and social justice. Freire advocated a pedagogy founded on a new relationship between teachers, students and society and developed an approach to education that links the identification of issues with positive actions for change and development. Freire was critical of what he described as the ‘banking model’ of education, in which students are positioned as passive listeners into whom knowledge is ‘deposited’ by a teacher. He argued that this reinforces political contexts in which the poor and disadvantaged simply accept the authority of those in power. His ideas have shaped education systems and inspired practitioners, philosophers and activists worldwide.
The genesis of this special issue on Paulo Freire
The genesis of this special issue entitled ‘Paulo Freire, Global Educator’ can be traced back to a confluence of circumstances that vividly illustrate the spaces and encounters where individuals gathered to engage with the thoughts of Paulo Freire. The idea for this special edition emerged during the celebration of the centenary of Paulo Freire’s birth and the collaborations and relationships that evolved from an initiative at the University of Cambridge. In 2021, a collective of Latin American students based at the University of Cambridge, known as the Cambridge Latin American Research in Education Collective (CLAREC),Footnote1 organised a two-week celebration at the Faculty of Education to honour Paulo Freire’s legacy. The aim was to promote various academic and cultural activities to stimulate discussions surrounding Freire’s work. This celebration was a collaborative effort involving the Faculty of Education community, partner institutions, collectives and social movements. The three editors of this special edition were involved in this initiative: Alexandre Da Trindade, as a member and co-founder of the student collective that organised the initiative; Carlos Alberto Torres, who was a special invited speaker for the opening ceremony of this celebratory event in Cambridge; and Susan Robertson, the Head of the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge at the time and not only opened the department’s doors to this initiative but also played a crucial role as a passionate supporter.Footnote2 Susan is also the Chief Editor of the Globalisation, Societies, and Education journal and proposed the development of this special issue. Additionally, several authors of the articles in this collection were actively involved in organising this initiative, including other CLAREC members such as Rocío Fernández Ugalde, Juliana Spadotto and Paula Castro.
During this commemorative event, the Cambridge academic student collective, in collaboration with the Brazilian popular education social movement Universidade Emancipa, presented a thought-provoking challenge: to conceive and execute a ‘popular conference’ founded on Freire’s concept of ‘popular education’. Freire’s notion of popular education underscores the importance of a liberating, political and ethical form of education conducted with oppressed or marginalised groups, with a focus on societal transformation that begins with tangible experiences and progresses towards theoretical comprehension. This approach incorporates elements such as dialogue, creativity and the active involvement of the learners. Consequently, a ‘popular education conference’ should fundamentally be dialogical and would depart from the conventional one-way knowledge transfer model, eschew meritocratic selection criteria and dismantle barriers related to language, access, format and perspective to ensure inclusivity and accessibility.Footnote3
Another significant event during this celebration was the unveiling of a bust of Paulo Freire at the Faculty of Education. The unveiling was made possible through a collaboration established in 2021 between CLAREC, the Cambridge University Brazilian Society (CUBS), the Landless Workers Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra, MST) represented by Rosana Cebalho Fernandes, the coordinator of the Florestan Fernandes National School (ENFF), and the academic community of the Faculty of Education. The installation of Freire’s sculpture in Cambridge holds profound symbolic value within the Freirean pedagogical project embraced by the MST, which is discussed in the article ‘The conditions for building popular hegemony: Paulo Freire’s ‘inédito viável’ and the experience of the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST)’ in this special issue. The sculpture, created by renowned Brazilian artist Murilo Sá Toledo to commemorate Paulo Freire’s centenary,Footnote4 was originally conceived by the MST as an installation for the educational and training centres located within the 1,800 schools currently operating in landless worker settlements, where approximately 450,000 families reside in 24 states across Brazil. Inspired by a Cuban initiative that placed busts of the revolutionary and Cuban independence martyr José Martí in its educational centres, the Brazilian installations were intended to symbolise, as declared by the MST during the aforementioned event, ‘Paulo Freire Alive; alive in the actions and praxis of the movement, and in reaffirming the commitment to popular education and the legacy of the educator’. For the MST, the memory of their struggle must be collectively constructed and its symbols integrated into a pedagogical and formative process that nurtures history and envisions the dream of transforming reality.
The installation of the sculpture at Cambridge coincided with a critical moment when educational and research communities worldwide, particularly in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Turkey and Hungary, were facing challenges to their academic and intellectual freedom. A global neoliberal and conservative agenda posed a threat to progressive and emancipatory education, which Paulo Freire represented. Consequently, the sculpture’s installation in Cambridge had significant reverberations in the academic community and beyond.Footnote5
A year later, the ‘II Freire Conference: Building the Bridge between Popular Education and University’ was held between 17 and 21 October 2022, with an opening keynote by Professor Kathryn Moeller – also featured in this Special Issue. Her reflections on power, coloniality and social justice when ‘thinking with Freire’, highlight the importance of his ideas. This inclusive, international and interdisciplinary event involved over 2,000 registered participants from 25 countries across four continents. The conference featured 440 works and activities, providing a platform for global collaboration and knowledge exchange, particularly grounded in Freire’s proposals. It included in-person events in Brazil, England and Cape Verde, alongside online activities, offering more than 70 sessions encompassing dialogues, cultural events, and presentations. One of the most significant moments of the II Freire Conference took place on 19 October 2022 when local activists, businesses, artists, charitable organisations and community groups came together simultaneously at the University of Cambridge and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro for a cultural exchange and discussions. This event transformed the universities into open and shared spaces for the day, facilitating dialogues between community representatives and academics on various local issues.
In Cambridge, the aim was to foster lasting partnerships for positive change in response to alarming income inequality in the city, which has been recognised as the United Kingdom’s most unequal city. Although Cambridge is extremely prosperous thanks to its universities and the closely linked technology and biomedical clusters, the top 6% of earners take home almost one-fifth of the income generated while the bottom 20% earn just 2% of the total.Footnote6 Inspired by Brazil’s Rede Emancipa social movement, the event was symbolically called a ‘day of occupation’, allowing community activists to access university facilities. It featured a hybrid conference and community festival with live performances, art showcases and local food vendors, using established popular education methods to spark discussions on how to address Cambridge’s issues of inequality, marginalisation and social exclusion. The event applied Freirean methods to facilitate a semi-structured community dialogue, encouraging open discussions about collaboration.Footnote7 The resonance of this initiative at the University of Cambridge played a pivotal role in its selection as the ‘event of the year’ by the Cambridge University Student Union.Footnote8
Concluding the second conference, Professor Budd Hall, Co-Chair of the UNESCO Chair in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, delivered a heartfelt poem titled ‘Surf on Pauliño’. Professor Hall, who had collaborated with Paulo Freire and shared a close friendship with him, composed this poem as a tribute to Paulo Freire on the occasion of his birthday the year following his passing in 1998.Footnote9 A poignant excerpt from this poem is presented below:
Collaborations in this special issue on Freire
The special issue ‘Paulo Freire, Global Educator’ offers a rich tapestry of papers that reflects the enduring influence of Paulo Freire’s revolutionary ideas in the world of education. These papers interconnect through several key themes, resulting in a nuanced and dynamic exploration of Freire’s legacy and the contemporary resonance of his concepts. Collectively, they offer a vibrant and interconnected exploration of Paulo Freire’s enduring legacy in the field of education. Themes such as praxis, emancipatory education, political action, dialogue, tolerance, love and hope weave a cohesive and dynamic narrative that underscores the lasting impact of Freire’s ideas on global education.
One recurring theme that binds these papers is the concept of praxis, which is eloquently examined by Carlos Alberto Torres in ‘Paulo Freire: a thinker of praxis, an itinerant thinker, a universal thinker’. Torres underscores how Freire’s biography and theoretical contributions are inseparable, illustrating the vital link between practice and theory in education, highlighting his multifaceted legacy and global relevance. The paper portrays Paulo Freire as a ‘pilgrim of utopia’ and encourages the adoption of utopian thinking as a driving force for change, emphasising Freire’s notion of ‘utopian marginality’, which is founded on a model of spirituality that is itself utopian. It also stresses the importance of blending theoretical and practical thinking, incorporating critical theory and critical pedagogy to foster democratic and multicultural citizenship. The virtues of tolerance, curiosity, freedom, hope and a spirituality of love are advocated as essential for educators. This emphasis on praxis echoes throughout the special issue, highlighting the transformative potential of Freire’s ideas.
Peter Mayo’s paper, ‘A global intellectual in a globalising world’, complements this theme by portraying Freire as a global luminary in education. It underscores the need for a more critical and dialogic approach to education in an increasingly globalised world. This resonates with the overarching theme of adapting Freire’s ideas to address evolving educational landscapes, a concept that Massimiliano Tarozzi explores in ‘Reinventing Freire in the Italian context. The case of his honorary degree at the University of Bologna’. Tarozzi’s paper delves into the reinvention of Freire’s ideas in response to contemporary challenges such as neoliberalism, highlighting the importance of historical and contextual analysis in understanding the continued relevance of Freire’s work. Tarozzi’s paper also interplays with the theme of transformative education as it emphasises the need to adapt Freire’s ideas to contemporary societal challenges, an idea echoed in other papers.
José Beltrán-Llavador’s paper, ‘A praxis of hope: lessons from the “untested feasibility” for twenty-first century education’, underscores the central theme of hope and transformation in education. It highlights the role of educators, researchers and public intellectuals in shaping a more equitable and just world, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper invokes the symbolism of Pandora’s box to underline the lasting importance of hope, as the myth suggests that hope remained inside the box when all troubles escaped, signifying that hope endures even in dire circumstances. Ultimately, Beltrán-Llavador calls for a commitment to love, curiosity and a perpetual quest for knowledge, framing this journey as a transformative pilgrimage alongside Paulo Freire. The idea of embracing the unexpected and replacing fear with optimism aligns with Freire’s concept of hope, which is a recurring motif in this special issue.
This is exemplified by how the concept of ‘inédito viável’ becomes a central thread in Rosana Cebalho Fernandes and Alexandre Da Trindade’s paper ‘The conditions for building popular hegemony: Paulo Freire’s “inédito viável” and the experience of the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST)’. The paper focuses on the Florestan Fernandes National School (ENFF), established by the MST in Brazil. The ENFF embodies a dynamic, collective process that aims to make utopian visions for societal change achievable, emphasising political consciousness, understanding social structures and creating transformative actions. It demonstrates how Freire’s ideas continue to drive social and political transformation, especially in contexts such as the MST in Brazil.
Rocío Fernández Ugalde’s paper, ‘Teachers’ politicity as a sociohistorical juncture: bringing a Freirean angle to education policy studies’, delves deeper into the political dimensions of education, underscoring the importance of critically engaging with educational policies. This concept aligns with Freire’s emphasis on ‘conscientização’ (critical consciousness) and the necessity of comprehending the political and social contexts within which education functions. The paper specifically explores a teacher strike in Chile, employing discourse analysis to scrutinise news from various sources. It highlights how teachers are actively engaged in issues of ‘politicity’ and underscores the presence of counterhegemonic resources for instigating change.
The concept of dialogue and critical consciousness, central to Freire’s pedagogical principles, comes to the forefront in the paper by Wen Xu and Garth Stahl, ‘“Your skin is like crocodile’s”: a case study of an African wài guó student in China’. This paper examines the experiences of an African student named Alex in China, employing key concepts from Paulo Freire’s pedagogical philosophy, such as dialogic practices and critical consciousness. It highlights the role of dialogue in challenging stereotypes and discrimination, an idea that resonates with the broader aim of promoting tolerance and understanding, which acts as a thread throughout this special issue.
The transformative potential of education also finds expression in ‘Igniting transformational change through applied theatre: Jardim Romano’s Floods and Estopô Balaio unleashing an overflow of possibilities’ by Juliana Spadotto and Nadia Saito. They explore how Applied Theatre (AT) empowers communities to challenge dominant narratives and reshape their realities. The paper underscores the significance of socially and politically engaged AT, drawing inspiration from the works of Paulo Freire and Augusto Boal. The paper presents a case study involving the Estopô Balaio collective theatre group in Brazil, which has collaborated with the Jardim Romano community in São Paulo for over a decade. This case study demonstrates the practicality of AT in fostering change and empowerment: through artistic strategies, the theatre group mobilised the community, challenged dominant narratives and empowered individuals to transform their realities.
‘Freirean dialogic action in Brazilian public schools: a Lesson Study contribution to teacher development’, authored by Paula Castro and Leila Rentroia Iannone, underlines the importance of dialogue and autonomy in teacher development, aligning with Freire’s emphasis on dialogue as a means to empower individuals to become agents of change. The authors conducted a Lesson Study cycle with English teachers in Brazilian public schools, with the goal of fostering dialogue, collaboration and autonomy in teacher development. Their paper illustrates that teachers can proactively participate in their own professional growth through collaborative reflection and action, which empowers them to drive change in education.
The final paper, ‘Popular knowledge as popular power: struggle and strategy of the Emancipa Popular Education Movement in Brazil’, by Joana Salém Vasconcelos, Paula Maíra Cordeiro, Naiara do Rosário and Tatiane Ribeiro, delves into the transformative potential of popular knowledge within the context of the Emancipa Popular Education Movement in Brazil. It highlights the movement’s efforts to combat social injustices and democratise Brazilian universities through popular education, emphasising the role of contesting culture and knowledge in challenging oppressive agendas. The authors accentuate the role of popular education and Paulo Freire’s pedagogical principles in empowering marginalised youth in Brazil. They also address the impact of university entrance exams on these marginalised groups and how the Emancipa Movement works to overcome educational exclusion. Additionally, the paper evaluates the effects of social and racial quotas in Brazilian universities over the past decade and the Emancipa Movement’s contributions to this effort, also discussing prospects for future progress. In essence, the paper argues that popular education as advocated by Freire plays an instrumental role in fostering broader social and political transformation in Brazil. It challenges the exclusionary agenda within the education system and advocates for accessibility while simultaneously empowering communities and collectives that resist this exclusion.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 For more information about the CLAREC collective, please visit: https://clarec.org.
2 To view the opening of the I Freire Conference at the University of Cambridge, along with the speeches by Professor Susan Robertson and Professor Carlos Alberto Torres, please visit: https://youtu.be/6FElzys6liA?si=4VFzWN20bztSJNsu&t=653.
3 A narrative of this experience was shared by CLAREC members Alexandre Da Trindade and Juliana Spadotto in a chapter of the book 'Paulo Freire e a educação popular: esperançar em tempos de barbárie' , organised by Joana Salém, Maíra Mendes and Daniela Mussi. This chapter has been translated into English and is available on the Knowledge, Power, and Politics (KPP) Blog at: https://kppcam.net/2022/11/17/the-celebration-of-paulo-freires-legacy-and-the-proposal-for-a-popular-conference-at-the-university-of-cambridge-2/.
5 As examples on BBC News, see: https://www.bbc.com/news/education-59406106; on University World News at: https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20211130130710854 and on UOL Educação at: https://educacao.uol.com.br/noticias/2021/11/15/como-uma-estatua-de-paulo-freire-criada-para-o-mst-foi-parar-em-cambridge.htm.
6 Refer to the Cities Outlook 2018 Report, available at https://www.centreforcities.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/18-01-12-Final-Full-Cities-Outlook-2018.pdf, as well as The Guardian’s coverage at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jan/12/beyond-cambridge-spires-most-unequal-city-tackles-poverty.
7 See the article published by the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge regarding this initiative at: https://news.educ.cam.ac.uk/latin-america-popular-education-inequality.
8 During the awards ceremony, the Cambridge University Student Union emphasised the significance of the II Freire Conference: ‘This event aimed to expand on the debate of popular education. The event brought together an extensive number of participants, volunteers, and thinkers. It was 100% student-led and aimed to be open and accessible to all, even outside of the University community. This event prioritised community learning, teaching participants about someone they may not have been familiar with before, which was really important to demonstrate diverse thinking across their geographical region’. For more information, please visit: https://www.cambridgesu.co.uk/news/article/cambridgesu/The-Cambridge-Students-Awards-Winners-announced/.
9 To access Budd Hall’s complete poem ‘Surf on Pauliño’, available in Portuguese, Spanish and English, please visit: https://www.unescochair-cbrsr.org/surf-on-paulino/. Budd Hall’s recitation of the poem during the closing ceremony of the II Freire Conference can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/live/x7Qi8-9W9vo?si=JElzUjQ-Ul9yRWSa&t=292.