Magda Becker Soares, one of the
creators of the university’s Faculty of
Education, FaE, and of the Center for
Studies on Literacy, Reading and Escrita
(Ceale), created by her in 1990. At the age
of 90, she had been retired from UFMG
since 2000, but her work with education
never stopped – she always remained
active. The cause of death and details of the
wake were not reported.
An educator and researcher, with a
PhD in Education and a degree in Literature,
she writes a long list of books. There are 12
publications, especially Portuguese
language textbooks, which were widely used
from the 1970s to the 1990s.
The dimension of what Magda
represents for Brazilian children’s literacy is
undeniable. She was the legacy of Paulo
Freire’s thought, with whom she was a
friend. “I believe that I work with the same
presuppositions and the same ideals as him,
with the same utopia”, she once said, in an
interview with Pesquisa Fapesp magazine,
of the Fundação de Amparo Pesquisa do
Estado de So Paulo. “I do not consider that
Paulo Freire’s main contribution is a literacy
method. The great contribution he made
was the political vision of literacy and the
fight against illiteracy”, she stated.
Magda Becker Soares, one of the
creators of the university’s Faculty of
Education, FaE, and of the Center for
Studies on Literacy, Reading and Escrita
(Ceale), created by her in 1990. At the age
of 90, she had been retired from UFMG
since 2000, but her work with education
never stopped – she always remained
active. The cause of death and details of the
wake were not reported.
An educator and researcher, with a
PhD in Education and a degree in Literature,
she writes a long list of books. There are 12
publications, especially Portuguese
language textbooks, which were widely used
from the 1970s to the 1990s.
The dimension of what Magda
represents for Brazilian children’s literacy is
undeniable. She was the legacy of Paulo
Freire’s thought, with whom she was a
friend. “I believe that I work with the same
presuppositions and the same ideals as him,
with the same utopia”, she once said, in an
interview with Pesquisa Fapesp magazine,
of the Fundação de Amparo Pesquisa do
Estado de So Paulo. “I do not consider that
Paulo Freire’s main contribution is a literacy
method. The great contribution he made
was the political vision of literacy and the
fight against illiteracy”, she stated.