Reading Paulo Freire: His Life and Work(SUNY series, Teacher Empowerment and School Reform)

This book was written as Paulo Freire himself would have done it, using a method of learning through victories and defeats in the same way one learns in life. The author follows a chronological line in which life and work are naturally mixed. In many cases, he lets Paulo Freire's work speak for itself.

Table of Contents:
Foreword: A Land of Contrasts and a Pedagogy of Contradiction by Carlos Alberto Torres Foreword by Peter L. McLaren and Henry A. Giroux Introduction 1. We Can Also Learn in the Shade of the Mangoes A Teenager Who Considered Himself Ugly Teaching as a Passion The Act of Studying The Act of Knowing 2. The Method Which Took Paulo Freire into Exile Literacy and Conscientization The Stages of the Method Literacy of Children Basic Readers and Cultural Readers The Methods Nowadays and Its Reinvention 3. Learning from History Historical Factors in the Thinking of Paulo Freire The Military Coup Exile in Chile The Main Works of the First Phase of Exile African Experience 4. A Pedagogy for Liberation Dialogic Pedagogy Banking Education and Problematizing Education Dialogic and Antidialogic Theory The Directive Role of the Educator The Intellectual and the Popular Masses Cultural Action for Freedom Christian Socialism and Utopia 5. Relearning Brazil A New Context, New Ideas Works on Paulo Freire Paulo Freire Today 6. A Revolutionary Educator Coherence: Theory and Practice No Reply is Definitive The Revolutionary Educator: Patiently Impatient Pedagogy of Indignation The "Last" Freire Paulo Freire as Public Administrator 7. Paulo Freire in the Context of Contemporary Pedagogical Thought Carl Rogers and Student-Centered Learning Confrontation with Ivan Illich John Dewey and the New School Vygotsky and the Revolutionary Soviet Educators The Complexity and the Universal Dimension of the Work of Paulo Freire Critique, Self-Critique, and Dialectic Conception Conclusion Epilogue: Education at the End of This Century Dialogue with Paulo Freire Notes Bibliography Paulo Freire's Main Works (in Chronological Order) Main Works about Paulo Freire and Other Consulted Works Index

About the Author :
Maocir Gadotti is one of the closest collaborators of Paulo Freire. He has worked together with him for almost 20 years. Recently, he was Chief of Cabinet when Paulo Freire was Secretary of Education of the city of Sao Paulo. At present, he is Professor of Education at the University of Sao Paulo and Director of the Paulo Freire Institute.

Review :
"This book deals with one of the most important educators of this century. It presents the work and life of Paulo Freire in a simple, straightforward fashion. By placing the life and work of Freire in the context of the history of ideas, the book introduces the reader to the complexities of Freire's pedagogical and epistemological position. The book is accessible, and will be welcome particularly by those who may have difficulties reading Paulo Freire. It does what it promises: makes Paulo Freire available to a wide readership. Likewise, the book discusses a pedagogical approach that is still evolving and has tremendous vibrancy for contemporary research and teaching. Professor Gadotti has captured this dimension in Freire's work better than many other scholars I have read." — Carlos Alberto Torres, UCLA "The topic is profoundly significant. Educators and intellectuals cannot talk today of literacy and education without reading this piece. The book is important in itself as well as central to educational and literacy studies. This is an important contribution—meaningfully thorough and intellectually stimulating. What I like most about the book is its ability to capture the originality and simultaneous growth in complexity of Paulo Freire's life and work." — Hermán S. García, New Mexico State University