Paulo Freire SIG Business Meeting: The Relevance of Paulo Freire's Work for Today's World: Racism, Wars, Displacement, and Climate Change. Paulo Freire Legacy Award and Brazilian Culture Celebration

Session Type: Business Meeting

Abstract

What would Freire say about the issues plaguing humanity today? Instigated by this provocation, this panel brings together internationally renowned Freirean scholars to debate how Freire's legacy can inspire us to fight against barbarism and rebuild a sense of humanity.
The theme of AERA's annual meeting calls for reflection and action to dismantle racial injustice and construct educational possibilities. In his works, Freire emphasizes that the dream of a better world is born from the depths of its opposite. Today, we are immersed in a reality in which the violence of racism and xenophobia has reached such extreme levels that, hand in hand with capitalist greed, they serve as fuel for wars in different parts of the world, condemning entire ethnic groups to misery and forced displacement. In this same scenario, climate change resulting from the overexploitation of nature shows devastating results, which disproportionately affect marginalized ethnic groups. It urges critical and radical educators to act towards reconstructing the sense of humanity, which, as Freire would say, arises from the denunciation of how we live and the announcement of how we could live.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Paulo Freire

Chair

• Inny Accioly, Universidade Federal Fluminense

Panelists

• Peter G. Mayo, University of Malta

• Sheila L. Macrine, University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth

• David O. Stovall, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Linda Orie, University of Wisconsin - Madison