Pedagogy of the City

by Paulo Freire, Donaldo Macedo

An important look at education and the urban poor, and a continuation of the experiments in education of Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Freire describes the everyday struggles, political as well as administrative, fought in the urban schools of Sao Paulo during Freire's recent 10-year tenure as minister of education.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Teaching, Social Science

168 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1991

About the author

The Brazilian educator Paulo Freire is among most the influential educational thinkers of the late 20th century. Born in Recife, Brazil, on September 19, 1921, Freire died of heart failure in Sao Paulo, Brazil on May 2, 1997. After a brief career as a lawyer, he taught Portuguese in secondary schools from 1941-1947. He subsequently became active in adult education and workers' training, and became the first Director of the Department of Cultural Extension of the University of Recife (1961-1964).

Freire quickly gained international recognition for his experiences in literacy training in Northeastern Brazil. Following the military coup d'etat of 1964, he was jailed by the new government and eventually forced into a political exile that lasted fifteen-years.

In 1969 he was a visiting scholar at Harvard University and then moved to Geneva, Switzerland where he assumed the role of special educational adviser to the World Congress of Churches. He returned to Brazil in 1979.

Freire's most well known work is Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970). Throughout this and subsequent books, he argues for system of education that emphasizes learning as an act of culture and freedom. He is most well known for concepts such as "Banking" Education, in which passive learners have pre-selected knowledge deposited in their minds; "Conscientization", a process by which the learner advances towards critical consciousness; the "Culture of Silence", in which dominated individuals lose the means by which to critically respond to the culture that is forced on them by a dominant culture. Other important concepts developed by Freire include: "Dialectic", "Empowerment", "Generative Themes/Words", "Humanization", "Liberatory Education", "Mystification", "Praxis", " Problematization", and "Transformation of the World".

http://www.education.miami.edu/ep/con...

Reviews

[sutibah · Rating 4 out of 5]

(…) el acento de una de mis luchas permanentes - la de no dejarme seducir por la tentación de las dicotomías en que nos perdemos y ya no podemos comprender el mundo (124).

(…) practicando usted puede volverse capaz de desvelar el componente teórico de la práctica… Y teorizando en torno a la práctica usted puede volverse capaz de tener mejor práctica (126).

En verdad, no hay práctica que no tenga incrustada una cierta teoría (160).

[Jacoby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the absolutely essential Freire. It's all about how he put his ideals to practice as education minister in Brazil. I found it so inspiring and awakening as far as what the real challenges are in building any kind of structures based on how we want it to look. It was really interesting to read how he overcame some of the doubts that the society of Brazil at the time had about his progressive thinking about education-it is an essential guide for any progressive putting real tangible work into laying out another way to live.

[Hannah Lulu]

Through a transcription of a series of interviews with Freire, this books give some detail to how Freire implemented his theories when he became lead administrator of the Department of Education in Sao Paolo.

As his pedagogy applies to the city of Sao Paulo, I'd say the practical application comes down to increasing teacher salaries, democratizing the top-down framework of administration and making schools more autonomous, enrolling more students in school, repairing physical school buildings, maximizing the use of existing space to expand access to school for more students, purchasing new equipment for the schools, and confronting the fact that there is a huge budget shortfall that is wholly inadequate. He instituted local school councils made up of a comprehensive school community of parents, teachers, and non-teaching school staff. He tried to de-emphasize testing especially in regards to teacher retention. He tried to address school drop-out rates by looking at what factors push kids out of school. He tried to steer away from failing students as a means of control in the classroom. He fostered the change of bylaws and a constitution for the school system that was created through a participatory rather than top-down process. He developed teacher training programs that focused on reflection on practice as opposed to imposition of teacher-instruction methods, and worked on the development of an integrated, interdisciplinary curriculum model that utilized dialogcal practice and promoted political consciousness. He tried to promote an ethos that respected students' life experiences as relevant to their schooling. He tried to promote an ethos of joyfulness in teaching and in learning. He attended to adult literacy. He worked with the department of health to address the needs of students with AIDS (and HIV I assume) and to address disease prevention strategies.

All of this sounds like a lot, and very impressive, but since the book was based on a series of interviews taken in the second year of his time in leadership, most of this is presented in the form of goals or sort of as a resume of accomplishments documented in the Epilogue. It took me three readings to really tease out what these practical applications of theory were. The main emphasis of the book seems to be that democratization of schools must be done through democratic processes, not by authoritative implementation of a ready-made curriculum. So in some ways, Freire seems resistant to lay out a formula to be duplicated. The book also reads as though verbatim Q and A, and so even if he did have a formula to share, the medium of Q and A is not conducive to presenting one. So, for someone trying to understand the relationship between theory and practice in a pedagogy of liberation, I found this to be a frustrating read.

[Patrick Hanlon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is late in Freire's career and partially while he was working as in city government in Sao Paolo. Consisting of interviews, the book is very much at the mercy of the interviewers rather than drive by PF. There is less of the intellectual heft that he is known for and there are several references to the day-to-day challenges administering the school system in Sao Paolo. With the last interview, Freire seems set free and the passion comes through with plenty of his insight and authority as an educational leader and intellectual.

[Rolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a collection of interviews that took place around the time Freire served as secretary of education for the city of São Paulo. While there are some interesting nuggets regarding his thought, much of this feels like a repeat of what he has said elsewhere. Also, where I would have loved to see more wonkish detail about his tenure in São Paulo, this book feels very light on detail of what his tenure looked like.

Overall, it’s an interesting part of Freire’s corpus, but definitely not one of the highlights.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this just as much as its better-known sibling, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Though I don't recall knowing anyone else who read it at the time. I remember finding the writing more accessible and the insights tangible, as Freire was writing from a position of formal power. It was a great read alongside bell hook's Teaching to Transgress.

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection of interviews done during Freire’s tenure as Secretary of Education for São Paulo. The interviews highlight the challenges and successes of putting theory into practice, and while sometimes American readers of Freire ignore the political aspect of his theory, the discussions in this book leave no room for that.

[marsel magenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Freire adalah tokoh yang luar biasa... menakjubkan... dan berani melawan tirani dengan pola pendidikan yang diusungnya. Melalui Freire saya mengenal istilah pendidikan sebagai arena pembebasan manusia. Pendidikan sebagai sesuatu yang membebaskan kita, bukan malah menjebak dan mengurung kita. Freire pula yang mengubah pandangan dalam diri saya bahwa manusia seharusnya berintegrasi... bukan beradaptasi... Adaptasi adalah kelakuan binatang... Manusia bukanlah binatang. Bedanya berintegrasi dengan beradaptasi??? Dalam berintegrasi ada kata saling di dalamnya... Sederhana, tapi memang itu yang harus dilakukan manusia.

Masuk ke bahasan buku... Buku ini lebih mudah dipahami daripada buku-buku Freire lainnya, karena dikemas dengan dialog-dialog Freire atas segala pertanyaan yang ditujukan padanya. Bahasa yang digunakan pun sangat sederhana... Saya pikir disengaja, karena Freire begitu mengagung-agungkan pendidikan yang dialogis... :)

Akhir kata, seperti kata Freire... Kita, sebagai anak didik bukanlah kolektor pengetahuan. Saring dan cerna lah apa yang kita anggap baik dari buku ini dan semua buku yang lain.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paulo Freire speeches, writing, and interview on his position as Secretary of Education for the city of San Paulo. His theory and terminology is much easier to understand here, because they are explained in everyday language.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a strong feeling that the translation does not do this book justice. There are a lot of odd turns of phrase and labyrinthine sentence structures. That said, interesting to hear how Freire applied his theory to reforming Sao Paolo schools.

[Panji Laksono · Rating 3 out of 5]

pemikiran dan isinya udah agak-agak lupa, yang jelas saat baca ini ya saat gemar-gemarnya saya pada pemikiran sosialisme n marxisme (bukan NARXISme loh ya!!!)

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this in an English Education class and loved it.