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Paulo Reglus Neves Freire (, ; September 19, 1921 – May 2, 1997) was a Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a leading advocate of critical pedagogy. He is best known for his influential work, ''Pedagogy of the Oppressed'', which is considered one of the foundational texts of the critical pedagogy movement. == Biography == Freire was born September 19, 1921 to a middle-class family in Recife, Brazil. Freire became familiar with poverty and hunger during the Great Depression of the 1930s. In 1931, the family moved to the less expensive city of Jaboatão dos Guararapes, and on October 31, 1934 his father died.〔Freire, P. (1996). ''Letters to Cristina: reflections on my life and work''. New York, NY: Routledge〕 In school, he ended up four grades behind, and his social life revolved around playing pick up football with other poor children, from whom he learned a great deal. These experiences would shape his concerns for the poor and would help to construct his particular educational viewpoint. Freire stated that poverty and hunger severely affected his ability to learn. This influenced his decision to dedicate his life to improving the lives of the poor: "I didn't understand anything because of my hunger. I wasn't dumb. It wasn't lack of interest. My social condition didn't allow me to have an education. Experience showed me once again the relationship between social class and knowledge" (Freire as quoted in Stevens, 2002).〔Stevens〕 Eventually his family's misfortunes turned around and their prospects improved. Freire enrolled in law school at the University of Recife in 1943. He also studied philosophy, more specifically phenomenology, and the psychology of language. Although admitted to the legal bar, he never practiced law. He instead worked as a teacher in secondary schools teaching Portuguese. In 1944, he married Elza Maia Costa de Oliveira, a fellow teacher. The two worked together and had five children. In 1946, Freire was appointed Director of the Department of Education and Culture of the Social Service in the state of Pernambuco. Working primarily among the illiterate poor, Freire began to embrace a non-orthodox form of what could be considered liberation theology. In Brazil at that time, literacy was a requirement for voting in presidential elections. In 1961, he was appointed director of the Department of Cultural Extension of Recife University. In 1962 he had the first opportunity for significant application of his theories, when 300 sugarcane workers were taught to read and write in just 45 days. In response to this experiment, the Brazilian government approved the creation of thousands of cultural circles across the country. In 1964, a military coup put an end to that effort. Freire was imprisoned as a traitor for 70 days. After a brief exile in Bolivia, Freire worked in Chile for five years for the Christian Democratic Agrarian Reform Movement and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In 1967, Freire published his first book, ''Education as the Practice of Freedom''. He followed this with his most famous book, ''Pedagogy of the Oppressed'', first published in Portuguese in 1968. On the strength of reception of his work, Freire was offered a visiting professorship at Harvard University in 1969. The next year, ''Pedagogy of the Oppressed'' was published in Spanish and English, vastly expanding its reach. Because of political feuds between Freire, a Christian socialist, and successive authoritarian military dictatorships, the book wasn't published in Brazil until 1974, when General Ernesto Geisel became the dictator president beginning the process of a slow and controlled political liberalisation. After a year in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, Freire moved to Geneva, Switzerland to work as a special education advisor to the World Council of Churches. During this time Freire acted as an advisor on education reform in former Portuguese colonies in Africa, particularly Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique. In 1979, he was able to return to Brazil and moved back in 1980. Freire joined the Workers' Party (PT) in the city of São Paulo and acted as a supervisor for its adult literacy project from 1980 to 1986. When the PT prevailed in the municipal elections in 1988, Freire was appointed Secretary of Education for São Paulo. In 1986, his wife Elza died. People close to him felt that he had given up after the loss of his wife and worried that he might die. Freire was teaching a graduate course, and became reconnected with Maria (Nita) Araújo from Recife, who once was a pupil in the school where he was a principal. Eventually, they fell in love. Freire married Maria Araújo Freire, who continues with her own education work. Freire often said that Nita saved his life: She was the culmination of the radical love he sought. Freire died of heart failure on May 2, 1997 in São Paulo. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Paulo Freire」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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