Comparing Two Cases of Freirean Nonprofits: Theorizing Critical Consciousness at the Organizational Level

• In Event: 70.066 - Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: 70.066-5 - The Many Faces of Freire: Exploring Local Interpretations of Freirean Theory by Social Justice Educators

Abstract

Objectives or Purposes: I will here analyze two case studies of organizations on opposite poles of the continuum of Freire's legacy. First, an urban women-led neighborhood association from northeastern Brazil, wherein the politically radical goals of its Freirean-trained leaders often do not match the benefits which community participants seek through their participation. Second—on the other end of the spectrum—is the case of an NGO working in central Mozambique that has adapted many of Freire's pedagogical methods for the pursuit of organizational goals much less radical than Freire's. Using this ethnographic data, the objective of this paper is to present a new theoretical paradigm through which such diversity can be more meaningfully understood: namely, the notion of organizational critical consciousness, or the continual process of reflection and action which educational organizations can undergo as they seek to define and achieve their mission.

Perspective(s) or Theoretical Framework: Paulo Freire (1970) theorizes and structures an empowerment-based model of education that forces participants to undergo a personal and communal process of wrestling with recognition of social structural inequality of any and all kinds in their daily lives. This difficult process leads participants in situations of oppression to question their conditions, with the eventual goal of reaching “a deepened consciousness of their situation [that] leads people to apprehend their situation as a historical reality susceptible of transformation” (p. 253). I here theorize how this state, known as critical consciousness, can be pursued organizationally as well as individually.

Modes of Inquiry and Data Source: This paper draws upon fieldnotes and data from two different ethnographic studies conducted in two different locations: both were organizational ethnographies, though my study of Associação Sete de Setembro (hereafter referred to as ASDS) in Brazil lasted three months while my study of a nonprofit called Comunidades de Poder (hereafter referred to as CDP) in Mozambique lasted 12 months. I here draw on 42 participation observations and 14 ethnographic interviews with ASDS, and 26 observations and 18 interviews with CDP.

Results and/or Substantiated Conclusions: ASDS began as an explicitly Freirean adult education organization that over time began to engage in more traditional afterschool activities due to community demand. While participants were happy with ASDS' programming, its leaders worried that they had strayed from their more radical original goals. CDP, on the other hand, utilized Freirean pedagogy divorced from Freire's philosophy, pursuing short-term organizational goals rather than wide-scale social change.

Scientific or Scholarly Significance: Both of these examples illustrate the different directions in which educational organizations can interpret the pedagogical models and philosophy of Paulo Freire, and the different ways that local communities can respond to those varying approaches. On the basis of these examples, I argue that the pursuit of critical consciousness can be productively theorized and utilized at the organizational—not just the individual—level, an idea that has not before been explored in the extant literature.

References

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

Author

• Rolf Straubhaar, University of Georgia