Paulo Freire

Brazilian educationalist — critical pedagogy and conscientização

Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo · Brazil · d. 19 September 1921 (Recife, Pernambuco) — 2 May 1997 (São Paulo)

Exiled after the 1964 coup, he finished Pedagogy of the Oppressed in 1968 while working in Chile. It reached readers first in translation, Spanish in Montevideo and English from Herder and Herder, both in 1970; the Portuguese original waited until 1974 in Brazil. Against the banking model, in which teachers deposit facts into passive students, he set dialogue and conscientização.

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Record

Life: 19 September 1921 (Recife, Pernambuco) — 2 May 1997 (São Paulo)
Country: Brazil
Period: 20th century
Affiliation: Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo
Areas: Philosophy of education, Critical pedagogy, Political philosophy
Major works: Educação como Prática da Liberdade (1967)
Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970)
Cultural Action for Freedom (1970)
Pedagogy in Process: The Letters to Guinea-Bissau (1977)
A Importância do Ato de Ler (1982)
Pedagogia da Esperança (1992)
Cartas a Cristina (1994)
Pedagogia da Autonomia (1996)
Key concepts: Conscientização, The banking model of education, Problem-posing education, Praxis, Dialogue, Culture circles, Limit-situations
Influenced by: Karl Marx, G. W. F. Hegel, Antonio Gramsci, Frantz Fanon, Erich Fromm, Albert Memmi, Jean-Paul Sartre
Sources: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Paulo Freire
Wikipedia, Paulo Freire
Wikipedia, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Wikipedia en español, Pedagogía del oprimido

Stories

This Day in Philosophy

Who licenses knowledge: Freire, Gilson and Vattimo on 19 September

Paulo Freire was born on this day in 1921; Etienne Gilson died on it in 1978, Gianni Vattimo in 2023. On the same date in 1796 a Philadelphia printer published a letter no one had heard spoken. Four anniversaries, one argument about who is entitled to say what counts as knowledge.

Paulo Freire, Gianni Vattimo

Newsroom19 September 2026