Adult learning, instruction and programme planning : insights from Freire

Abstract

Paulo Freire (1921–97) was one of the most influential educationists of the twentieth century. It is from a Freirean perspective that this article on adult learning, instruction, and program planning is written. Argentinean scholar Daniel Schugurensky says, with reference to adult education, that: ‘‘in Latin America, Paulo Freire constitutes a watershed. There is before and after Freire’’ (Schugurensky, 1998: 344). Several years earlier, another Argentinean scholar, Carlos Alberto Torres, remarked: ‘‘We can stay with Freire or against Freire, but not without Freire’’ (Torres, 1982: 94). In addition, although Freire was undoubtedly one of the most heralded educators of the twentieth century, who inevitably has his detractors, his influence extends beyond the field of education to be felt in a variety of areas, including sociology, political theory, development studies, theology, philosophy, cultural studies, anthropology, language studies, and communications. Paulo Freire suffered imprisonment and exile for his efforts in planning what was perceived as being a subversive approach to literacy in Brazil in the early 1960s. Freire subsequently worked, as a person in exile, in Chile, Massachusetts, and Geneva. During his 16-year period of exile, he was frequently called upon by revolutionary governments to assist them in developing and evaluating educational projects. He also engaged in projects with a variety of groups in different parts of the world. After his return to Brazil from exile, which, on his own admission, he had to relearn, he entered the complex domain of municipal educational administration in Sa˜o Paulo, one of the world’s largest cities. Freire was most prolific as a published writer, with many of his works having been translated into English and other languages. Freire’s better-known work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, is regarded by many to be exemplary in the way it provides reflections on his many worlds of social action in a process that also involves constant recourse to theory, with Freire drawing on many sources in this regard, including Marxism, phenomenology, Christian personalism, liberation theology, and postcolonialism.