An anthology of essays by teachers using Paulo Freire's methods in their classrooms.

Two world renowned educators, Paulo Freire and Ira Shor, speak passionately about the role of education in various cultural and political arenas. They demonstrate the effectiveness of dialogue in action as a practical means by which teachers and students can become active participants in the learning process. In a lively exchange, the authors illuminate the problems of the educational system in relation to those of the larger society and argue for the pressing need to transform the classroom in both Third and First World contexts. Shor and Freire illustrate the possibilities of transformation by describing their own experiences in liberating the classroom from its traditional constraints. They demonstrate how vital the teacher's role is in empowering students to think critically about themselves and their relation, not only to the classroom, but to society. For those readers seeking a liberatory approach to education, these dialogues will be a revelation and a unique summary. For all those convinced of the need for transformation, this book shows the way.

What happens when teachers share power with students? In this profound book, Ira Shor—the inventor of critical pedagogy in the United States—relates the story of an experiment that nearly went out of control. Shor provides the reader with a reenactment of one semester that shows what really can happen when one applies the theory and democratizes the classroom. This is the story of one class in which Shor tried to fully share with his students control of the curriculum and of the classroom. After twenty years of practicing critical teaching, he unexpectedly found himself faced with a student uprising that threatened the very possibility of learning. How Shor resolves these problems, while remaining true to his commitment to power-sharing and radical pedagogy, is the crux of the book. Unconventional in both form and substance, this deeply personal work weaves together student voices and thick descriptions of classroom experience with pedagogical theory to illuminate the power relations that must be negotiated if true learning is to take place.

This book displays the striking creativity and profound insight that characterized Freire's work to the very end of his life-an uplifting and provocative exploration not only for educators, but also for all that learn and live.

Famous for his advocacy of 'critical pedagogy', Paulo Freire was Latin America's foremost educationalist, a thinker and writer whose work and ideas continue to exert enormous influence in education throughout the world today. Education for Critical Consciousness is the main statement of Freire's revolutionary method of education. It takes the life situation of the learner as its starting point and the raising of consciousness and the overcoming of obstacles as its goals. For Freire, man's striving for his own humanity requires the changing of structures which dehumanize both the oppressor and the oppressed. This edition includes a substantial new introduction by Carlos Alberto Torres, Distinguished Professor and Founding Director of the Paulo Freire Institute, UCLA, USA. Translated by Myra Bergman Ramos.

One of the most influential critical educators of the twentieth century, Paulo Freire challenged those educational inequalities and conditions of injustice faced by oppressed populations. In this new edition of Reinventing Paulo Freire, Antonia Darder re-examines his legacy through reflections on Freirean pedagogy and the narratives of teachers who reinvent his work. The fully revised first part provides important historical, political, and economic connections between major societal concerns and educational questions raised by Freire and their link to the contemporary moment, including questions tied to neoliberalism, coloniality, and educational inequalities. At the heart of the book is a critical understanding of how Freire’s pedagogy of love can inform, in theory and practice, a humanizing approach to teaching and learning. Powerful teacher narratives offer examples of a living praxis, committed to democratic classroom life and the emancipation of subaltern communities. The narratives clearly illustrate how Freire’s ideas can be put concretely into practice in schools and communities. These reflections on Freirean praxis are sure to spark conversation and inspiration in teacher education courses. Through a close theoretical engagement of Freire’s ideas and key insights garnered from lived experiences, the book speaks to the ways Freire can still inspire contemporary educators to adopt the spirit of liberatory pedagogy, By so doing, Reinventing Paulo Freire is certain to advance his theories in new ways, both to those familiar with his work and to those studying Freire for the first time.