IN CONTEXT
Radicalism
Critical education
1929–34 Antonio Gramsci writes his Prison Notebooks, outlining his development of Marxist thought.
1930s Brazil suffers extreme poverty during the Great Depression.
1960s While a professor of history and philosophy of education at the University of Recife, Brazil, Freire develops a program to deal with mass illiteracy.
1970s Freire works with the World Council of Churches, spending nearly a decade advising on education reform in a number of countries across the world.
Political writers have often attempted to understand the struggle against political oppression. Thinkers such as Karl Marx and Antonio Gramsci framed oppression in terms of two groups of actors—the oppressors and those who are oppressed.
Brazilian educator Paulo Freire’s work revisited this relationship, concentrating on the conditions needed to break the cycle of oppression. He believed that the act of oppression dehumanizes both parties and that, once liberated, there is a danger of individuals repeating the injustice they have experienced. In effect, the oppressed themselves might become oppressors.
"The greatest humanistic and historical task of the oppressed is to liberate themselves and their oppressors as well."
Paulo Freire
Genuine liberation
This line of thinking held that it would take more than just a shift in roles to end oppression and begin the genuine process of liberation. Freire believed that through education, humanity could be restored, and that a reform of education could produce a class of people who would rethink their lives. In this way, oppressors would stop viewing others as an abstract grouping and would understand their position as individuals who are subject to injustice.
Freire saw education as a political act in which students and teachers needed to reflect on their positions and appreciate the environment in which education takes place. His work has influenced many political theorists.
See also: Georg Hegel • Karl Marx • Antonio Gramsci