PEDAGOGIA CRÍTICA, PAULO FREIRE E A CORAGEM PARA SER POLÍTICO

Abstract

At a time when memory is being erased and the political relevance of education is dismissed in the embrace of the language of measurement and quantification, it is all the more important to remember the legacy and work of Paulo Freire. Since the 1980s, there have been few if any intellectuals on the North American educational scene who have matched Freire’s theoretical rigor, civic courage, and sense of moral responsibility. And his example is more important now than ever before: with institutions of public and higher education increasingly under siege by a host of neoliberal and conservative forces, it is imperative for educators to acknowledge Freire’s understanding of the empowering and democratic potential of education. The language of critique and educated hope was his legacy, one that is increasingly absent from many liberal and conservative discourses about current educational problems and appropriate avenues of reform. Paulo spent his life guided by the beliefs that the radical elements of democracy were worth struggling for, that critical education was a basic element of progressive social change, and that how we think about politics was inseparable from how we come to understand the world, power, and the moral life we aspire to lead. Paulo strongly believed that democracy could not last without the formative culture that made it possible. At a time when institutions of public and higher education have become associated with market competition, conformity, disempowerment, and uncompromising modes of punishment, making known the significant contributions and legacy of Paulo Freire’s work is now more important than ever before.