Retexturing the word and the world : literacy and contradiction in the texts of Paulo Freire

• Main Author: Taylor, P. V.
• Published: University of Warwick 1991
• Subjects: 800; L Education (General)
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.293850

Most studies of Freire concentrate on his method and techniques. This present work seeks to go beneath the obvious practice of Literacy teaching, to analyse the construction of his pedagogy and to explore the contradictions posed both by Freire's life (bio-texts) and by his work (grapho-texts). The study therefore proposes the most detailed Biography of Freire which is yet currently available, identifying the main stages of his career and exploring the development of his educational philosophy. Following a brief review of his Method. There is a detailed presentation of the Sources and Influences which lie behind Freire's pedagogy, which reveal his comprehensive eclecticism but which also place him firmly within the classical tradition of European education. This section reveals for the first time some of the key taproots of Freirean philosophy. This textual archaeology and genealogy is also used to construct an analysis of this philosophy through a detailed examination of the concepts of Dialogue and Conscientisation. Trying to reconcile the fundamental disjunction which appears between Freire's rhetoric and his practice. That "Dialogic Education" may be a contradiction in terms is further explored through a unique examination of the Teaching Material which Freire used in his programme. The fundamental contradiction is exposed: that Literacy, which means "learning to read" can never achieve its ideals of Dialogue. The study is itself structured on the Freirean Methodology of Coding and Decoding. In ends by placing Freire's pedagogy within the wider context (con-text) of the recent Literacy debate, confronting the nature of Literacy itself, the construction of Power and Knowledge through Writing and the further contradiction contained in the idea of "Functional Literacy". The conclusion is that Literacy is its own multi-faceted Pharmakon: of its essence, Literacy is an agent of Control and an agent of Change. The strength of the study is in its detail and in its extensive bibliographic research. It concludes that Freire's attempt to retexture Literacy, to renovate the inherent contradictions of teaching and learning, is a major contribution to Pedagogy, not because it is successful but because it authentically and exhaustively Problem Posing. The "Metodo Paulo Freire" is a contradictory pedagogy, but it is also a Pedagogy of Contradiction.