Freire, Paulo

Freire, Paulo (pou`lō frār`), 1921–97, Brazilian educator. After his exile from Brazil following the military coup in 1964, Freire taught in Chile and was a consultant to UNESCO. He taught at Harvard and was a consultant to the World Council of Churches before returning to Brazil in 1981. He is best known for his controversial approach to teaching illiterates, employing visual materials to teach them about self-perception and community problems. His writings include Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970) and The Politics of Education (1985).

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Freire, Paulo

(born Sept. 19, 1921, Recife, Braz.—died May 2, 1997, São Paulo) Brazilian educator. His ideas developed from his experience teaching Brazil's peasants to read. His interactive methods, which encouraged students to question the teacher, often led to literacy in as little as 30 hours of instruction. In 1963 he was appointed director of the Brazilian National Literacy Program, but he was jailed following a military coup in 1964. He went into exile, returning in 1979 to help found the Workers Party. His seminal work was Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970).