The Indispensability of Paulo Freire’s Concept of Hope and Utopia During These Polarizing Contemporary Times

• In Event: Analyzing Racial Colonialism and Power Relations From a Freirean Perspective

Abstract

During these polarizing social and political contemporary times, Paulo Freire’s thought remains indispensable. With a particular focus on Freire’s notion of hope and utopia and his dialectical denouncement-announcement dynamic, this paper argues why educators must possess political clarity and recognize that utopian hope is not something one waits to magically appear; rather, it is an activist hope one moves toward in order to not succumb to the neoliberal project and the increasingly dictatorial state.

Authors

• James D. Kirylo, University of South Carolina

• Darrell Boyd, Eastern University