Paulo Freire’s Biography
Karen Angulo
Susan Castillo
Johanna López
Mª Gabriela Morera
Universidad Latina de Costa Rica
Paulo Freire
Biographical Infromation
Name: Paulo Reglus Neves Freire
Birthdate: September 19th, 1921
Birthplace: Recife, Brazil
Died: 1997
General Background: Due to the experiences of his family during the Great Depression, which started in 1929, Freire concerned for the poor as well as his perspective on education was influenced by the situations knowledgeable by his family. Freire enrolled at Law School at the University of Recife in 1943, where he also studied philosophy and the psychology of language. Rather than a career in the law, however, he became a secondary school teacher of Portuguese. In 1944, he married Elza Maia Costa de Oliveira, a fellow teacher, with whom he had five children. In 1946, Freire became Director of the Department of Education and Culture in the Brazilian State of Pernambuco. It was in this role, working primarily with the illiterate poor, that Freire began to develop a non-orthodox philosophy of education and literacy. His original work in the 1950s and early 1960s was deeply connected with the question of education for development, and particularly how to link education and citizenship building. After several political and social difficulties he had to overcome, Freire was accused of being a communist and a subversive; he was jailed for seventy days and then offered exile instead of continued imprisonment. He was not to return to Brazil until 1980. Thus exiled from his homeland, he moved first to Bolivia and few months later to Chile, where he worked for the United Nations. In his earlier work in Brazil, Freire had been exposed to the theoretical paradigm of popular education. The new theories of development and political theory that he encountered while in Chile completed his formative period (Gadotti and Torres, 1992; Torres, 1990), the foundation that would make him one of the most prominent popular educators in the history of the region.
On his words
“Teaching is a political process. It must be a democratic process to avoid teaching authority dependence. The teacher must learn about (and from) the student so that knowledge can be constructed in ways that are meaningful to the student. The teachers must become learners and the learners must become teachers” (Lyons, 2001).
Freire talks about that education should see students like subjects, rather than objects, and not like a bank where teacher deposit all information into their students. Knowledge is not a set article of trade that is passed from the teachers to the students. He says that teachers must make students to think and question everything they learn, so in that way they can construct knowledge from knowledge they already possess. Teachers must learn how the students understand the world so that the teacher understands how the student can learn and have humility, coupled with love and respect for their students (Lyons, 2001).
The teaching-learning process cannot be separated from the context in which the students grow up; they should be linked in order to get a successful and meaningful learning. Teachers should take into account the environment in which students live, its incorporation within the class is a must. By these means students can use what they have learned in their daily situations and reinforce the new knowledge with the previous one, making it meaningful and relevant for them. Educators need to know what happens in the world of the children with whom they work because it affects the students’ learning.
Education has not been an opportunity for all the people, in the past; it was only for the high class population. Freire tried to change this situation; he desired to provide greater opportunity for the poor and oppressed people of the world, for this reason, he made his best effort to help people to be part of the education. He had a goal and he fought for that, it is stated in Lyons (2001) that Freire taught 300 people to read and write during a month and a half. He knew the poverty and the hunger, and he wanted to change this situation and show to the population that there is a better way to live, and that the key for this better world is the education.
Schools and high schools are considered as second houses for the students, in which they share with other people, learn to deal with the differences among them and respect them; in these institutions they acquire different values to use them in their lives. It is so important to promote the value of respect among the students; they should understand that every human being is equal to the other one, with the same opportunities to be educated and improve their lives. Freire tried to teach this value in order to motivate his students to apply it in every situation, people should understand that nobody is better than the other one, no one is ignorant, and no one knows everything. But teachers should take into account that if they want to teach a principle like respect, they should apply it in their classes, so if students are in a respectful climate they are going to acquire it. Teachers should remember that schools are means for promoting values and beliefs which are imposed by the characteristics of a society.
Another important point that we can stand out about Freire’s work is that he emphasized that “it is not possible to be a teacher without loving teaching” (qtd in. Lyons 2001). People, not only teachers, should love what they do because if you really care about your job, you will try to make the best in every activity, you look for different opportunities to improve every day, you like to share with others what you know, it is seem as a opportunity to grow personally and professionally, not as an obligation. So, it is not enough to have a lot of knowledge about a subject, or to say that you like your job, it is necessary to show by actions what you say.
Also, it is important the contribution that Freire gives to the meaning of dialogue. It is necessary to listen to our students, to learn more about them, their goals, their learning styles, their preferences and the most relevant aspects that surround them. Teachers should know their students, and it is not possible just by figuring out or assuming, it is necessary to talk with students in order to get to know them for real. Dialogue is so important to keep a good environment in the classroom, to improve the teaching-learning process by means of the feedback, and to help the students to reach their goals. Also, dialogue gives the opportunity to discuss about different topics, to state their personal point of view and it provides enough information of students’ perceptions and helps them to improve their communicative skills.
References
http://www.newfoundations./GALLERY/Ferire.html
Moacir Gadotti and Carlos Alberto Torres (2009). Paulo Freire: Education for Development. Retrieved from
http://www.siduna.una.ac.cr:2062/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&hid=15&sid=37c600f1-266d-4c55-9d8c-83c4b0875404%40sessionmgr11
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