The Making of A Pedagogy of the Oppressed

• In Event: Before and After a Pedagogy of the Oppressed: From Cold War Politics to 21st-Century Social Action

Abstract

Due to the high level of innovation and influence of A Pedagogy of the Oppressed and the international visibility of its author’s activism, scholars often portray Paulo Freire and his work as exceptional to their time and place. This paper, instead, situates Freire and his ideas within an international historical, intellectual, and pedagogical context. It traces his pedagogical ideas back to popular education and culture movements formed in France in the post-World War II moment and places the roots of his activism in a popular education movement begun in Recife, Pernambuco in the 1950s. In doing so, this paper offers Freire as an ideal example, rather than exception, to the post-World War II moment and highlights the interaction and importance of other activists and pedagogues – particularly lesser studied women – who worked alongside Freire in his literacy campaigns.

Author

• Courtney J Campbell, University of London