Knowledge and learning – the ageless Paulo Freire

• Autor(a) principal: Demo, Pedro
• Data de Publicação: 2007
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista da ABENO (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revabeno.emnuvens.com.br/revabeno/article/view/1409
• topic: Education. Learning. Teaching. Knowledge.; Educação. Aprendizagem. Ensino. Conhecimento

The aim of this paper was to outline some of the controversial aspects of knowledge and learning in order to point out their political reconstructive meaning, thus restoring the consolidated tradition of Paulo Freire, namely the emancipative meaning of its proposal: to undo the condition of maneuvering mass of the great majority of the population on account of their ignorance. Based on the literature relevant to the field of education and on an analysis of it, the author discusses the meaning of knowledge and the methods and resources of conveying it, while condemning reproductive, intructionist didactics. The author also states that the main measures of learning should be to know how to think and to learn how to learn, which will eventually turn schools into centers of change that will lead society to the knowledge era. In addition, the author considers that it is difficult to direct knowledge’s decisive energy in favor of the excluded population, even though he considers it to be the main function of a political education. In conclusion, the author states that political poverty is even more serious than material poverty as it reveals the inner functioning of the dialectical contradiction in real history, made of privileged minorities that exploit ignorant majorities.