THE PAULO FREIRE LITERACY METHOD: A CRITICAL EVALUATION

Abstract

In the early part of the 1960's, in the poverty stricken Northeast of Brazil, Paulo Freire developed a highly controversial method of literacy training among the poorest people. However, with the fall of the Goulart govemment in 1964, Freire's work in Brazil came to an end and he moved to Chile where, until 1970, he used his method to bring about agrarian reform. Freire then spent a year in the United States, lecturing at Harvard University and working with groups interested in his method. Since 1971, he has been based in Geneva, Switzerland as a consultant to the World Council of Churches and recently established there an institute for the further development and extension of bis methods of education. In this paper it is my purpose to make a careful examination of the Paulo Freire Method. Though many groups throughout the world are using it in varying types of educational endeavors, unfortunately many of them have not looked seriously enough at the underlying philosophical, cultural, and pedagogical assumptions.