The Man

I have found few books as profoundly moving as the works of Paulo Freire; Cultural Action for Freedom and Pedagogy of the Oppressed. They are moving not only in the sense of being emotionally and intellectually satisfying, but but also in that they are motivationally stimulating, inspiration. For, Freire's books are not merely treatises of educational theory: they are also attempts to explain the source and the immense success of Freire's educational practice.

Paulo Freire is a 52-year-old Brazilian from the provincial city of Recife in the north-east of that country. As a child he knew hunger — and its effects on schooling. At the age of 11 he committed himself to a struggle against hunger, so that other children would not have to know the same agony. He soon recognised that the supposed helplessness of the poor was the result of the social structure. His realisation that the people were discouraged from becoming critically aware of the cayse of their plight and that the school system was one of the major means of their repression turned his interest towards education. How could education begin to break down the "culture of silence" instead of enforcing it?

Freire's philosophy was first expressed in his doctoral dissertation at the University of Recife. It continued to develop while, as Professor of the History and Philosophy of Education at the same university, he began to experiment with the teaching of illiterates. A method known as "alfabetization" was the result of this theory and practice. Many people concerned with the welfare of the poor, including the Catholic Church, began to use Freire's method in literacy campaigns throughout the north-east of Brazil. However, the method not only taught people to read and write in a surprisingly short time, it also taught them to critically appraise their world. The Latin American peasant has much to be critical about.

In 1964 Brazil was shaken by a military coup. The old order considered Freire's method such a threat that Freire was immediately imprisoned and the use of his method banned. Released 70 days later and encouraged to leave the country Freire went to Chile, There he spent the next five years working for Unesco and Chilean government agencies, again concerned mainly with adult literacy programmes. Until the coup in Chile Freire was still an adviser to Allende's government. It wilt be interesting to see what becomes of Freire's method under the current Fascist government.

Freire spent 1969 at Harvard where the two books I have mentioned were written in response to requests for a theoretical explanation of the basis of his method and his views on education generally. Largely as a result of these two books Freire has begun to significantly influence educational thought and practice in the western world. They have also spread Freire's influence further and deeper into the Third World. Liberation movements in Portuguese African Colonies, South Africa, the Phillipines and Palestine are adopting Freire's ideas to suit the needs of the people they serve. Each year Freire holds a seminar at Ivan IIlich's CIDOC in Mexico: it is the only seminar at the centre at which South Americans outnumber North Americans....

Paulo Freire acts as Education Consultant to the World Council of Churches in Geneva. The Churches Christian Education Commission of New Zealand sponsored a visit by Freire this month. The Student Teachers' Association of New Zealand arranged a three day programme in Christchurch for interested student teachers and teachers college staff.

The Method

The Freire method, it must be remembered, does not aim solely or even chiefly at adult literacy. The major concern is to awaken consciousness: in the Portuguese "conscientizacao". This means making the illiterates aware of their potential and dignity, and enabling them to perceive more realistically the world in which they live, the causes and consequences of events in their lives.

The method stems from three sources. Firstly, the language, culture and problems of the illiterates themselves are taken into account. Before any teaching is undertaken with any particular population it is informally and closely observed, its attitudes, aspirations and peculiarities noted. A list of words most charged with meaning for the community is drawn up. Secondly, to balance this subjective study of the illiterates, the method draws on studies and analyses of underdevelopment and poverty. Thirdly, philosophies of knowledge, human nature, culture and history provide a more complete picture of man his needs and potential. This component gives direction to the method.

The list of words is reduced to between 16 and 20 by two further criteria: (i) how useful are they in learning the range of vowels and consonants and as keys to a larger, more complex vocabulary; (ii) their capacity to confront social realities and mean something important to the illiterates. For example, the word for "work" in Spanish, "trabajo", covers a number of sounds and as well as meaning "occupation" connotes of the nature of human existence, economic functions, co-operation and unemployment.

A set of cards with pictures relating to the chosen words is constructed with a view to impressing an image of the word on the pupil and stimulating thinking about the situation the word implies. For example the first card of set produced for a Chilean rural group depicted a peasant carrying an axe to cut down a tree. From this simple illustration, with a minimum of assistance (mostly in the form of questions and invitations from the "co-ordinator" to the less vocal members of the circle) it was hoped that the following point would emerge from the group...there is a world of nature and a world of culture, through work man alters the natural environment and creatively forms culture.

The second picture is of a folk-dance. Through it the group can learn man employs culture for aesthetic reasons, not just to survive. The third picture shows a humble Chilean home inhabited by a working class family. It is at this stage that the literacy training begins for this particular group. The class learns that one can symbolise a lived experience by drawing, writing or reading it.

The literacy training involves a number of audio-visual techniques familiar enough to New Zealand teachers but placed in a context quite unusual to us. At the same time as the group are repeating and memorising words, breaking them into Component syllables, learning to write letters, learning to write words and constructing new words from the components, the co-ordinator of the group guides them in reflection and discussion. For example, from the meaning of the word "house" such themes as the need for comfortable housing for family life, the problems of housing in the nation and the problems of housing associated with urbanisation are developed. Provocative questions such as "where and why do Chileans lack housing?" help to generate critical attitudes in place of apathy.

The circles, as they are called, need to be assisted by someone trained in the method. The co-ordinator must not force his viewpoint on the group but rather help the illiterates to form their own opinions through dialogue. Dialogue is brought about by the co-ordinator asking provocative questions and drawing less vocal members of the circle-into the discussion.

Thomas G. Sanders says of those brought out of the culture of silence by this method "My own most memorable impression from having visited these classes is of the capacity of people of limited education for thoughtful analysis and logical articulation of issues when those issues are linked to their everyday life."

You can understand the threat felt by the Brazilian oligarchy when you realise that "conscientizacao" takes less than three months to complete (and this after a days work in the fields). At the rate the method was catching on in 1964, it was possible for Brazil to eliminate illiteracy, (estimated at 40,000,000 or half the population) within a few years Significantly, illiterates do not have the right to vote in Brazil.

Relevance to New Zealand

I imagine most readers will probably have asked one or two questions by now "Its rather political isn't it?" and "But what does this have to do with New Zealand, a country with near universal literacy?"

In my mind the two questions are related. If you asked the first one it seems to me that you lack the critical awareness Freire tries to foster. You assume education can be other than political. If you asked the second question, the answer is that that the method does not aim solely or even chiefly at literacy; the primary goal is critical awareness among the masses.

There is a considerable amount of evidence that the masses in this country lack critical awareness with regard to social issues. The content and quality of our media is one example, Newspapers offer very little in-depth reporting and news analysis. When asking questions of speakers, New Zealanders van be fobbed off with the most obvious non-answers and diversions. We have an unhealthy submissiveness towards authority. Look at the response Mr Kirk's promises concerning Bikies met with last election, or Truth's campaign to birch bashers. Most significant of all is the lack of action on the part of the people. Freine's critical awareness brings an end to the culture of silence: that is why we most look for lessons in his method

Freire insists there is no such thing as a neutral education. Either education is for domestication or it is for liberation Either it seeks to cast you in the mould of the established order or it equips you to critically and creatively appraise and transform reality. The initial choice, claims Freire, lies with the educator, for while no one can liberate someone else, neither can liberating education be experienced alone.

In problem-solving education the teacher must learn to become a teacher who is also a student, and must let his pupils become students who also teach. The teacher student does not deposit knowledge but by dialogue names the problem and searches for solutions. There is no point in attempting dialogue between oppressor and oppressed as this only afford the oppressor further opportunities to dominate. Dialogue is only for those who approach each other as equals.

Freire's books are testimonies to a faith in the power of people and dialogue.

Paul Burns