Jacques remembers one of the most influential educational thinkers of the last 60-or-so years; Paulo Freire, who was born 100 years ago in recife in Brazil, influenced two generations of development and emancipation activists.     

This started with his literacy work in Brazil in the early 1960s and after his exile from his country under the military dictatorship in 1964, spreading right across Latin America and working with the World Council of Churches, all over the world.     

The publication of his 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed' in 1970 inspired large numbers of  educators both in the formal and informal sectors and his writings became obligatory inclusions in the curricula of social work, community development and social change across the world.     

Jacques has personally worked with Freire and remembers his 'conscientisation' approach vividly as well as its integration in many formal university courses he has taught in. It would be very useful to go back to this work and reintroduce it during the rather troublesome times we live in at present.    

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Freire

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York, Continuum.

Freire, P. (1970). Cultural Action for Freedom. [Cambridge], Harvard Educational Review.

Freire, P. (1973). Education for Critical Consciousness. New York, Seabury Press.

Freire, P. (1975). Conscientization. Geneva, World Council of Churches.

Freire, P. (1976). Education, the Practice of Freedom. London, Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative.

Freire, P. (1978). Pedagogy in Process: The Letters to Guinea-Bissau. New York, A Continuum Book: The Seabury Press.

Freire, P. (1985). The Politics of Education: Culture, Power, and Liberation. South Hadley, Mass., Bergin & Garvey.

Freire, P. and I. Shor (1987). Freire for the Classroom: A Sourcebook for Liberators Teaching.

Freire, P. and H. Giroux & P. McLaren (1988). Teachers as Intellectuals: Towards a Critical Pedagogy of Learning.

Freire, P. and I. Shor (1988). Cultural Wars: School and Society in the Conservative Restoration, 1969–1984.