ISFD n° 103. DR.

Francisco Zimei
Taller de Ingles 2021
Profesora Analía Osorio.

TEXT 1

Paulo Freire:
Popular Education,Latin
America by Alfonso Torres Carrillo

Early Influences and History.

Paulo Freire was trained as a lawyer at the University of Recife in northeast Brazil in the
1940s. While a student he was a social activist as a member of the Catholic Action movement.
The radical group was “more preoccupied with the concept of society and social change, and
acutely aware of the conditions of poverty and hunger in the Northeast” (Jeria, 1986, p. 13). He
worked as a labour union lawyer among the poor and became interested in literacy training.

Freire gave up his legal career in 1946 and began to work with a social service agency for the
state of Pernambuco. Because of his literacy background, he was responsible for the literacy
programs for the rural poor and industrial workers. He resigned his literacy post in 1959 and
accepted an appointment on the faculty of the University of Recife. As a professor of education,
he continued literacy work with the poor, involving his students in field projects. During this
period Freire began to conduct many discussions with the masses, and also to refine his literacy
techniques. There was emphasis given to the use of visual aids in dramatically depicting the
relationship of literacy to social issues. Eventually, the use of visuals became the pivotal
technique in his literacy work.

By the early 1960s, Freire’s literacy work was becoming well known and very successful. In
one Brazilian city, 300 workers learned to read and write in forty-five days. In 1963, the literacy
programs were expanded nationwide, and programs were established in each state capitol
(Elias, 1976). By 1964, a master plan was under development to train thousands of literacy
workers to conduct a national campaign for 20 million illiterates.

Freire’s literacy leadership was abruptly terminated in April 1964. A military coup toppled the
Goulart government from power and enacted new laws for political reform. The new laws were
oppressive and singled out hundreds of former government leaders, who were branded as
subversives and forced to leave the country. Paulo Freire was arrested and charged with
“spreading foreign ideas throughout the country” (Jeria, 1986, p. 406). He was jailed for
seventy-five days and given an intensive interrogation for eighty-three hours. While in jail,
Freire wrote about his experiences in literacy work and began to define his radical philosophy
of education.

After leaving Brazil in exile, he spent brief periods in Bolivia and Chile. While he was living in
Chile, he assisted in literacy in connection with land reform. During this time, he also wrote his

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ISFD n° 103. DR. Francisco Zimei
Taller de Ingles 2021
Profesora Analía Osorio.

first book – EducaÇao Como Pratica da Liberdade. His work was beginning to receive
international attention when he was invited to lecture at Harvard University. From there he
joined the World Council of Churches in 1971.

After nine years of writing, lecturing, and consulting throughout the world, Freire was granted
the right to return to Brazil in 1980. He was appointed Secretary of Education in 1988 in the
mayoral election of a socialist candidate in Sao Paulo, one of Brazil’s largest cities. He came
close to being appointed Minister of Education, a national office, when supporting a political
candidate for president in 1990, but Lula da Silva lost the election (Bell et al., 1990).

Social Change Orientation. What was later labelled as “popular education” emerged in Latin
America in the 1960s under the influence of the philosophy of Paulo Freire. It is directly related
to the concept of “populism” – a political philosophy related to the needs of the common people
and advocating a more equitable distribution of wealth and power. There is no universally
agreed upon definition of popular education. But there seem to be several characteristics that
define it as a distinctive type of educational-social movement. Hamilton and Cunningham
(1989) provide four characterizations of popular education: “(1) horizontal relationships
between facilitators and participants, (2) response to a need expressed by an organized group,
(3) group involvement in planning the training and political action, (4) acknowledgement that
the community is the source of knowledge” (p. 443). The fourth characteristic is the critical
element that will separate popular education from formal education, non-formal education,
informal education, and community development. Popular education is not a reformist
movement; its goal is to transform society by starting with the individual.

The broader goal of social change is reflected in a variety of foci, methods, and approaches of
popular education. Some are the human rights movement, workers’ struggles, and women’s
issues. Some have evolved in relation to ecological movements and the issues of landlessness.
There are several emerging trends in popular education. A brief description of some popular
education experiments
(Prajuli, 1996) may include the Chipko project in India, where there has been a drive to save the
forest and environmental resources. As a part of this project, people are gaining knowledge and
raising levels of consciousness about the delicate balance between humans and the ecology. Local
people have reclaimed indigenous knowledge and are acting on it, as juxtaposed to modern
science and technology.

The Folk Development School Movement and Study Circles in Sweden and Denmark are
increasingly being linked to workers’ and citizens’ movements (Paulston, 1979). Likewise,
many community education programs in England are becoming a part of the workers’
movements (Lovett, 1983). In Nicaragua, popular education is a part of the national
mobilization of reconstruction, linking it with citizens’ collectives, trade unions, and religious
organizations (James, 1983).

A community-based literacy project in San Francisco Bay area of California is an example of a

movement for ethnic and minority empowerment. The project provides a critical educational

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ISFD n° 103. DR. Francisco Zimei
Taller de Ingles 2021
Profesora Analía Osorio.

approach with lessons on racism and discrimination, the arms race, and citizens’ rights (James,
1983). In Latin American countries, local groups have organized and used various forms of
critical approaches – from literacy to dramatization in theatres to participatory research tactics.
Oliver (1987) reports that there was consensus among adult educators at the World Assembly of
Adult Education, held in Buenos Aires in 1985, to develop a plan of action for the linking of
“adult civic education” with popular education.

COMPRENSIÓN LECTORA.

Ejercitació n.

1. Busque en el texto tres adjetivos que describan el trabajo de alfabetizació n de Freire.

2. Busque en el texto un verbo, tres sustantivos y cuatro adjetivos relacionados con la
denominada “educación popular”

3. Lea el texto nuevamente para identificar fragmentos donde haya:

• Diá logo
• Descripció n
• Narració n
• Explicació n
• Argumentació n

4. Segú n la predominancia de secuencias textuales ¿Qué tipo textual corresponde a este

texto? ¿Es un texto informativo de trama descriptiva, narrativa, argumentativa,
expositiva, dialogado o una combinació n de alguno de éstos? Justifique.

5. Identifique las siguientes partes e indique dó nde se encuentran en el texto:

• Trayectoria profesional de Paulo Freire.

• El trabajo de alfabetizació n de Freire.
• Motivos por los cuales se interrumpe su tarea de alfabetizació n.
• Su exilio.
• La educació n popular como manifiesto de un cambio social general en Latinoamérica
en los añ os ´60.
• Principios bá sicos de la educació n popular.
• Diferentes acercamientos y movimientos en pos de la educació n popular.

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ISFD n° 103. DR. Francisco Zimei
Taller de Ingles 2021
Profesora Analía Osorio.

6. Teniendo en cuanta las siguientes preguntas sintetice el texto en no má s de 10

renglones.

a) ¿Cuá l es el objeto problemá tico que plantea Freire?

b) ¿Cuá les son los problemas a resolver?
c) ¿Qué razones se esgrimen para plantear ese problema?
d) ¿A qué conclusió n se llega?

Un texto expositivo descriptivo es aquel que presenta el significado o concepto

de algún tema. Tiene como fin el hecho de informar de manera objetiva sobre
algo sin que prevalezca el punto de vista de quien lo está escribiendo. Se pone
especial énfasis en los detalles y en las definiciones. Se trata de dar una
visión de un objeto, una persona o un hecho lo más adecuada posible a la
realidad.

Existen distintos tipos de dificultades en lo que se refiere al texto expositivo:

• Texto expositivo divulgativo: se da cuando el tema que se toca es un

tema de interés general para el público, que no tiene información sobre el
mismo. El objetivo que se tiene es el de enseñar y el de ser un texto
didáctico en general.
• Texto expositivo técnico o específico: En él se cuentan conocimientos
más especiales sobre un tema, porque se entienden que la persona que
lo
va a leer ya cuenta con una información previa, por eso se utilizan
palabras más técnicas o particulares.

Los textos expositivos suelen estar relacionados con los trabajos de investigación,
las tesis, monografías, artículos, conferencias o ensayos entre otros.