L-edukazzjoni hi politika : kitbiet Paulo Freire [Book review]

Abstract

This is not the first text dedicated to Freire by members of the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta. Peter Mayo’s Liberating Praxis: Freire’s Legacy for Radical Education and Politics (2004) was considered by Henry Giroux, “One of the best sources on the life and work of Paulo Freire”. Carmel Borg’s 2013 edited selection of translations in L-Edukazzjoni hi politika: Ġabra ta’ kitbiet ta’ Paulo Freire (‘Education is politics: A collection of Paulo Freire’s writings’) adds a text in Maltese amongst the various languages mediating Freire’s thoughts. Besides an introduction and detailed biography of the Brazilian educator, the editor selects for translation a number of extracts representing a comprehensive gamut of Freirean themes, of which he also provides a summary. Amongst others, the themes include banking education, ethical formation, dreams and utopia, ideology, anger, the Church, and post-colonial dilemmas and contradictions. In this review essay, the two aspects of Freire’s work Carmel Borg chose for a title - education and politics - are contextualised within conceptual frameworks of development and the role of human agency therein. The conceptual frameworks are historically grounded and consequently carry the tension of abstract dualities and dichotomies (centre-periphery; north-south; backward-advanced) in relation with more concrete observations of the complex and changing economic, political and cultural developments. Human agency carries the equally tense relations between observations of protagonists (Freire and the people with whom he shared experiences) and their concrete personal and class experiences. The two - ideal typical development models and human agency - are doubly articulated and enriched by being posited together. This, it is suggested, is one rewarding approach to critically appreciate these readings collected by Carmel Borg.