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> > > > > CRITICAL VIEWS OF PAULO FREIRE1S WORK < < < < <

Compiled by John Ohliger for the 1995 Iowa Community College Summer Seminar*

* In a letter to Miriam Temple I wrote: "Thanks for the news about what thesummer seminar is planning. My experience is that Freire is usually treatedas some kind of an icon [See: Cayley & Furterr p. 04; Millwood & Aronowitz,p. 05; Elias, p. 11; and McLaren/Giroux, p. 14]. If you'd like me tof Icould prepare a brief annotated bibliography of critical comments on Freire.In my opinion the best criticism is the work of Blanca Facundo [See pp. 14-15]." Miriam replied, "Of course, I would like you to prepare a bibliographyfor the seminar participants."

TABLE OF CONTENTSPAGE

02. I. WRITING STYLE (Kathryn Anderson, William Ayers, Tom Balke, AnnBerthoff, Bruce Boston, John Egerton, David Fetterman, EdgarFriedenberg, Rozanne Knudson, Herbert Kohl, Trevor Pateman, FrancesRafferty, Beth Swadener/Jean O'Brien)

03. II. CONSCIENTIZATION (Peter Berger, David Cayley/Ivan Illich, JohnElias/Sharan Merriam, Pierre Furter, Esther Gottlieb/ThomasLa Belle, Ivan Illich, George Mathew/Pradip Prabhu/Paulo Freire,David Millwood, Matthew Zachariah)

05. III. RELIGION (Stanley Aronowitz, Harold Beder, Moacir Gadotti, DonaldMcDonald/Paulo Freire, John Ohliger, Dudley Plunket, BradfordStull)

07. IV. THE OPPRESSOR & THE OPPRESSED (C.A. Bowers, John Bugbee, JohnElias, Erwin Epstein, William Griffith, William Kennedy, MalcolmKnowles, Gary MacEoin, Manfred Stanley)

08. V. LITERACY (John Bugbee, Hiber Conteris, Sandra Stotsky, DanielWagner)

09. VI. CONTRADICTIONS (Rena Foy, Henry Giroux, Charles Isaacs, Tom Leach,David Nasaw, Daniel Schipani, Ann Sherman, P.V. Taylor)

11. VII. THE TEACHER & THE TAUGHT (Herb Addo, Peter Caulfield, John Elias,Philip O'Meara, Rolland Paulston. James Pitt, Joel Spring, CarlosAlberto Torres, Jim Walker)

13. VIII. SEXISM (Jeanne Brady, bell hooks, Kathleen Weiler)

13. IX. APPLICABLE T0 OTHER GROUPS? (Elizabeth Ellsworth, Merrill Ewert,Peter McLaren/Henry Giroux, Rosiska de Oliveira/Pierre Dominice,Wayne Urban, Roger Woock)

14. X. BLANCA FACUNDO1S MONOGRAPH (Blanca Facundo, Tom Heaney, Frank Adams,Henry Giroux, Ross Kidd, Jeff Zacharakis-Jutz)

[NOTE: To save space below, citations are minimal, ellipses and page numbers are left out,and generally only the authors1 critical views of Freire1s work are quoted.]

I. WRITING STYLE

"IT ILL BEHOOVES AN EDUCATOR FOR LIBERATION TOPRESENT HIMSELF TO INTERESTED READERS CLOAKED IN SUCH

AN OBSCURE, CONVOLUTED, DULL, OVERLY METAPHYSICAL STYLE" Bruce Boston

Anderson, Kathryn Murphy. "Recent Conversations with Paulo Freire." College Literature, Oct1994. "The three-day conversation [in Paulo Freire on Higher Education] suffers from a lackof direction: questions are lengthy and sometimes unclear, Freire's answers sometimessuffering from his tendency to rephrase questions or redirect them. An early exchangetypifies the problems with this dialogue that make it a less than satisfying book: questionsdirected toward actual classroom and institutional practice are met with further discussionsof terminology, are redirected, or are simply ignored, and concrete solutions are rarelyaddressed effectively or at length. Freire answers further questions asking for 'concretetactics' or strategies in various fields 'to truly convert higher education into an elementof transformation' by refraining the issues under discussion and directing the problem toanother speaker. This exchange exemplifies the failure of many in the book to yield muchmore than an accounting of problems, risks, and misunderstandings."

Ayers, William. "Review of A Pedagogy for Liberation." Teachers College Record, Fall 1987."The fundamental problem is that the dialogue is not sufficiently grounded in the lives ofteachers and students. Ideas tend to be disconnected, floating around in an overlyintellectualized atmosphere. Authentic teaching voices and liberating projects fall throughthe cracks, and a sense of possibility and vitality is lost."

Balke, Tom F. "Review of The Politics of Education." Studies in the Education of Adults, Apr1986. "Freire's text may lose certain readers who are unable to invest the time and effortto navigate his philosophical-linguistic discourse. Certain sections of the text may beaccessible only to those educators and theoreticians of the progressive left who arecomfortable with Freire's language of liberation. Feminist readers may experience difficultyin dealing with the masculine language used throughout the text. Some readers may also yearnfor examples of women's initiatives in the fields of cultural action, education,conscientization, and social change."

Berthoff, Ann E. "Paulo Freire's Liberation Pedagogy." Language Arts, Vol. 67, No. 4, 1990."Freire is difficult to read because he is both a Christian and a Marxist and those lexiconsare sometimes at odds with another. TO take up Paulo Freire's slogans without his philosophyof language will be to misapprehend his philosophy of history. Propounding the pedagogy ofthe oppressed without its philosophical moorings will be no different than settling foralimentary education which Sartre made fun of: 'Here eat this! It's good for you!'"

Boston, Bruce 0. "Paulo Freire." In Paulo Freire. Stanley Grabowski, ed. Syracuse UniversityPublications in Continuing Education, 1972. "It ill behooves an educator for liberation topresent himself to interested readers cloaked in such an obscure, convoluted, dull, overlymetaphysical style, devoid of the real human experience which generated such provocativeideas. A number of people who have worked on the Freire model are beginning to understandthat Freire's methods make it possible to be critical about nearly everything except thosemethods themselves."

Egerton, John. "Searching for Freire." Saturday Review of Education, Apr 1973. "Thecriticisms tumble out: It has become fashionable among romantic radicals in this country toread and talk about Illich and Freire. But Freire is no more radical than most of us. Thereis no originality in what he says it's the same old rap. He has lectured us, criticized ournarrow focus on small problems, but his alternative the global perspective is stalerhetoric. He's a political and ideological theoretician, not an educator. There is nothingconcrete and specific in what he says. One participant sums it up: I don't know how Pauloreacts as a person to anything.'"

Fetterman, David M. "Review of The Politics of Education." American Anthropologist, Mar1986. "His discussion of peasant literacy is written in a language replete with academicabstractions and newly coined expressions that speak only to an elite male intelligentsiaHe also leaves basic questions unanswered. Could not 'conscientization' be another means ofanesthetizing and manipulating the masses? What new social controls, beyond simpleverbalisms, will be used to implement his social policy? How is Freire's humanistic andliberating ideology reconciled with the logical conclusion of his pedagogy —the physicalviolence of revolutionary change?"

Friedenberg, Edgar Z. Review of Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Comparative Education Review, Oct1971. "There is certainly no honor to be gained by putting down a work so well intentionedand generally well-received. This is a truly bad book. Hie pedantic style, the consistentunderstatement of the opposition and the very peculiar avoidance of Freire's own extensiveexperience as a source of illustrative material, in preference for fragments of publishedwork. The American reader intent, like Freire, on using education as a subversive activityhas an array of sharper and more comprehensive sources at his disposal."

Knudson, Rozanne. Review of Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Library Journal, Apr 1, 1971. "Hiswords are curiously unmoving. We really never get close to these oppressed. Who are they?Freire's definition seems to be 'anyone who is not an oppressor.' Vagueness, redundancies,tautologies, endless repetitions provoke boredom, not action. Freire's organization is sochaotic that the oppressor, presumably the intended reader, will find the going difficult."

Kohl, Herbert. "The Making of History." Hungry Mind Review, Mar 1990. "Freire's work canseem abstract and overly intellectual to readers unfamiliar with the language of dialecticalargument or theological debate."

Pateman, Trevor. "Review of The Politics of Education." Sociology, Feb 1986. "This book isthe stuff of which academic book sales are made. It's a collection of repetitive articles,prefaces and talks from the 1970s sandwiched between a pretty bland introduction and an(undated) interview. Sloppily edited the footnotes to the interview are omitted; Freire'scitations are given to the editions he quotes and not to available English translations itis, however, illustrated with a dozen rather hagiographic photographs of Freire."

Rafferty, Frances. "Literacy Man's Utopias." Times Educational Supplement, Oct 29, 1993."Freire's books, often laden with dense jargon and Marxist terminology, can be heavy going."

Swadener, Beth & Jean O'Brien. Pedagogy of the Obsessed. An 18 page take off on Pedagogy ofthe Oppressed prepared in 1982 for a graduate seminar at the University of Wisconsingraduate program in adult education. Sample: "QUIZ! Freire was a: a) Marxist, b) Catholic,c) Revolutionary, d) Confusing Writer, e) All of the above."

II. CONSCIENTIZATION

"I WOULD CALL CONSCIENTIZATION ALL PROFESSIONALLY PLANNEDAND ADMINISTERED RITUALS THAT HAVE AS THEIR PURPOSE

THE INTERNALIZATION OF A RELIGIOUS OR SECULAR IDEOLOGY" IVAN ILLICH

[SEE ALSO: Balke & Fetterman in I.; Plunket in III.; Kennedy in IV.; Bugbee in V.; Schipaniin VT.; & Walker in VII.]

Berger, Peter L. Pyramids of Sacrifice. Basic Books, 1974. "[Freire] called his method'concientizacao' literally, 'making conscious.' This name has caught on as 'consciousnessraising' in the United States. The concept of 'consciousness raising,' as currently used,implies some highly questionable assumptions. It implies philosophical error and politicalirony. 'Consciousness raising' is a project of higher-class individuals directed at a lower-class population. Coupled with this arrogance is a recurrent irritation with 'those people'

who stubbornly refuse the salvation that is so benevolently offered to them: 'How can theybe so blind?' If the hierarchical view of consciousness simply referred to levels ofinformation on specific topics, there would be no need to quarrel with it. If one wishes toextend this superiority to information and perspectives in general, plausibility disappears,for peasants very clearly have far superior information on other topics such as plant andanimal life, soil conditions, the weather, and a multitude of manual skills and materialartifacts."

Cayley, David. Ivan Illich in Conversation. House of Anansi Press, 1992. ILLICH: "TheMarxist Christians at the World Council of Churches have adopted [Freire] as their idol andhave manipulated his image."

Elias, John L., & Sharan Merriam. Philosophical Foundations of Adult Education. KriegerPublishing, 1980. "Freire's philosophy of man [sic], though idealist and Utopian, hascertain weaknesses. Freire rarely gets beyond generalities or pieties in developing thisphilosophy. Though in his literacy work he was involved with real men and women, Freireproduces only abstraction when he writes about the human person. In his writings the personlives often in no historical time; has no body, passions, emotions. Since the concept ofoppression is an important concept in Freire's social philosophy, it is unfortunate that hedoes not give a more adequate treatment of it. No criteria are given for judging whatobjective exploitation would be or what a responsible person would do. Though Freire'stheory of conscientization is impressive, it still suffers from a number of weaknesses.Freire has valiantly attempted to avoid the idealist position, but it appears that he doesnot succeed. His theory of conscientization depends on some sort of transcendent view ofreality through which individuals come to see what is real and authentic. There appears tobe little room in his view for the painful struggling with different views and opposingviewpoints. It all comes down to the dominant classes with their distorted view of realityand conscientized individuals with their view of the reality that really is. Casting socialreality in black and white terms is more characteristic of the simplistic religious preacherthan the critical philosopher of knowledge and education."

Furter, Pierre. "Profiles of Educators." Prospects, Vol. 15, No. 2, 1985. "When a manbecomes a myth in his own lifetime, as Freire has become thanks to his development of theconcept of 'conscientization,' the more he publishes and the more comment his work provokesthe more difficult it is to distinguish the one from the other. Not only is there confusionbetween the man and the myth, but we no longer know whether the ideas we associate with himare to be counted among his intentions, his practical achievements, his successes or hisfailures, or whether they are simply what he has come to represent in the minds of hiscontemporaries. The confusion is particularly serious in Freire's case, as his concept ofconscientization has given rise to a great deal of misunderstanding, right from his veryfirst successes in Brazil. Could Freire be everybody's bete noire, if suitably presented?The overall impression is that Freire is being asked to provide a universal answer to allthe educational problems of our societies. It is as though he were regarded as a guru whosemessage offers a solution to problems of which he is not even aware. What is happening isthat Freire is being turned into a kind of fetish, as witness the interest in his 'method,'his 'conscientization,' his 'system,' as though he were offering a universal panacea."

Gottlieb, Esther E., & Thomas J. La Belle. "Ethnographic Contextualization of Freire'sDiscourse." Anthropology & Education Quarterly, Mar 1990. "Most consciousness-raisingprograms, alone or in combination with skill-transmission programs, have not achievedexpected social changes, and it seems that this has led to a growing disenchantment withthese efforts."

Illich, Ivan. Gender. Pantheon, 1982. "What has been called the 'process of civilization'builds on a process that could be called 'conscientization.' The term has been coined inBrazil to label a kind of political self-help adult education organized mostly by clergymenpopularizing Marxist categories to help the poor discover that they are 'humans.' It couldbe used by the historian to describe an enterprise that was decisively shaped by the Churchthrough the institutionalization of the sacrament of Penance in the 12th century, anenterprise that since then has been followed by other techniques. I would call

conscientization all professionally planned and administered rituals that have as theirpurpose the internalization of a religious or secular ideology. Conscientization consists ofthe colonization and standardization of vernacular probity and honor through some 'catholic'(that is, universally human) set of institutional rules. I would argue that it constituted,during the early Middle Ages, a perversion of the original Christian idea of reform. Reformas the attempt to bring about a renewal of the world by means of one's own personalconversion was conceived by early Christians as the vocation that set them apart (158)."

Mathew, George, ed. A Day With Paulo Freire. Indian Society for Promoting ChristianKnowledge, 1980. "PRADIP PRABHU: There is a myth that has been created and is beingperpetuated, that traditional institutions, be they in education or in health or in anyother work, can also do 'conscientization.' But as you know these institutions are there toperpetuate a particular system. And the conscientization process must necessarily subvertthat system. How can they do 'conscientization'? Any institution that is either supported orprotected by the state or financially assisted by the state cannot but work for the state.So, Paulo, when you say 'do the work and don't be naive about the work,' you are asking usto walk out of these institutions. You cannot stay in these institutions and doconscientization.

"FREIRE: I am trying to forget the word 'conscientization,' but not the process. Forthe last seven years I never used the word. That word is too much corrupted [FREIRE THENGOES ON TO USE THE TERM NINE MORE TIMES]. If you ask me, 'Paulo, do you think that throughformal, systematic education we could transform society?' I would say, 'no, for me it is notpossible.'"

Millwood, David. "Conscientization and What It's All About." New Internationalist, Jun 1974."CONSCIENTIZATION and PAULO FREIRE are currently the most trendy words in the wholedevelopment debate. Some see conscientization almost as a new religion with Freire as itshigh priest. Others see it as just so much hot air with Freire as chief windbag."

Zachariah, Matthew. Revolution through Reform. Praeger, 1986. "Conscientization appears tobe a movement that has seen its heyday. Conscientization may be criticized for not proposingconcrete measures for improving the standard of living of the people. Conscientization mayalso be criticized for being patronizing in its own way. Do ordinary men and women need tobe conscientized before they recognize that they lead desperate, oppressed lives marked byhunger, disease, and the denial of dignity? They know the score and do not need middle classdo-gooders to tell them. They acquiesce in their oppression because they have no otherchoice. To offer them hope through Conscientization is worse than deceitful. What they needis for people to fight on their side, so they can overthrow the oppressors. Conscientizationhas been criticized for evading or worse, camouflaging the issue of leadership. No amount oftalk about 'educator-educatees' and 'educatee-educators' can get around the fact that thereare teachers and students in Conscientization. It is a short step from that criticism tocharacterize the leaders of culture circles not benevolently as 'teachers' but asmeddlesome, outside agitators."

III. RELIGION

"THE PLACE OF THE RELIGIOUS IN FREIRE HAS SPARKED INTENSE DEBATE"Bradford Stull

[SEE ALSO: Elias, Illich, & Millwood in II.]

Aronowitz, Stanley. "Paulo Freire's Radical Democratic Humanism." In Paulo Freire. PeterMcLaren & Peter Leonard, eds. Routledge, 1993. "The name of Freire has reached near iconicproportions in the United States, Latin America and, indeed, in many parts of Europe."

Beder, Harold. "Review of Conscientization and Deschooling by John L. Elias. AdultEducation, Vol. 27, No. 4, 1976. "While sympathetic to his subjects, Elias does not hesitateto identify points of questionable logic in their thinking. In doing so, the author has

presented a balanced analysis which is a refreshing change from works on Freire and Illichwhich either sanctify or condemn the two social critics. He states: 'Utopian thinkers likeFreire and Illich, who do not posit stages of development are involved in a dilemma if thevadmit the existence of present evil, they must admit the capacity of man [sic] to do eviland fashion evil institutions. The capacity must be part of man's [sic] natuTe. If thev donot admit the existence of present evil, than their proposed utopia"aTready exists.' Fromthe layman s [sic] perspective, a basic problem with the writings of Freire and Illich isthat they are replete with religious symbolism and philosophical allusions. Freire's conceptof naming the world, for example, is difficult to understand unless one is aware of itstheological context."

Gadotti, Moacir. Reading Paulo Freire. State University of New York Press, 1994 "Hisphilosophy has been criticized by the Cardenal of Porto Alegre (South Brazil), Dom VicenteScherer, because it 'fails to conciliate or harmonize with the principles of Christiandoctrine, irreconcilably clashing and contradicting them,' and 'accepts Hegelian dialecticsand the Marxist interpretation of history.'"

McDonald, Donald. "Educating the Oppressed." The Center Magazine, Sep/Oct 1986. "MCDONALD-What do you see as the role of the Church in a revolutionary situation in which Marxists mayuse religious people for an agenda of their own?

"FREIRE: We have the right to criticize a revolution, but only from inside of it, notoutside of it. If we go outside the revolution, we are against it."

Ohliger, John. "What Is Radical Adult Education?" Adult & Continuing Education May, Feb12, 1990. "The dominant strain in the radical adult education literature so-calledcriticaltheory or critical pedagogy places almost total reliance on rationality. Just look at someof the recent books by or about Paulo Freire and see if you don't agree. My hope: the daywill soon come again when radicals will once more find a healthy balance between the needfor a rigorously profound logic and the need for an easily accessible spirit of freedom."

Plunket, Dudley. "Review of The Politics of Education." British Journal of EducationalStudies, Jan 1986. "As a Catholic reading this book, seeking to follow the evolving Freirethrough the successive phases of his explication of conscientization, I find him mercurialand ambiguous. He is entitled to use whatever ideas he wishes, but I can find no resolutionbetween the structuralist Marxist, the humanistic commitment to personalist values, theenquirer into the epistemology of power relationships at the micro-level, and the hintingsat the potentiality of a prophetic church. Moreover, there is no ready explanation for theliberal use of religious concepts, such as Easter, prophecy, hope, or kingdom, as if theywere just metaphors. Indeed, when Freire is asked in an interview about how he likes tolive, he answers at length, in an engaging and personal manner, but without enlightening mein the slightest as to why he is so interested in religious language or theology. Deusabsconditus! It surely befits a virtually self-confessed prophet."

Stull, Bradford T. Religious Dialectics of Pain and Imagination. State University of NewYork Press, 1994. "The place of the religious in Freire has sparked intense debate. Bowersfinds in Freire a view that religion is destined to become a matter of personal belief orsomething to be replaced by rational thought. Zike argues that Freire is essentially a-religious. Rivera maintains that Freire's system is antireligious and rational and approvesof this. Knoblauch fears that Freire's system leads to theology."

IV. THE OPPRESSOR & THE OPPRESSED

"FOR YEARS I HAVE BEEN SEARCHING FOR AN INSTANCE IN WHICH PEASANTS HAVEBROKEN OUT OF THEIR OPPRESSION, BUT HAVE FOUND NONE.

WHEN I ASKED FREIRE, HE ADMITTED THAT NEITHER HAS HE." Gary MacEoin

[SEE ALSO: Knudson in I.; Elias in II.; Bugbee in V.; Schipani in VI.; Ewert, Weiler, &Woock in IX.]

Bowers, C.A. "Review of The Politics of Education." Educational Studies, Spr 1986. "In themost critical area of Freire's own existential project, which is to provide an understandingof the conditions of human alienation and oppression, he appears to have reached a pointwhere original insight, burdened now by excessive repetition, is in danger of becoming anencumbering dogma. When packaged together and represented as a new statement on the politicsof education, the appearance of these old essays is a major disappointment."

Bugbee, John A. "Reflections on Griffith, Freire and Beyond." Literacy Discussion, Spr 1975."One can hope that Freire will choose to address himself to the claims he abstracts from theconcrete specifics of the class struggle in his oppressor-oppressed analysis; that he willclarify the role that he accords to ideas as an agency of history; and that he will nolonger leave open the whole matter of a political program to be framed by those who woulduse his methods."

Elias, John L. Conscientization and Deschooling. Westminster Press, 1976. "The problem withFreire's social criticism is its simplistic nature. Freire deals only in vague generalities.Oppression is never clearly defined. Freire concentrates on the oppression of the poor andfails to deal realistically with oppression as it is found at all levels of society. It is amistake to see only the poor as oppressed and all others as oppressors."

Epstein, Erwin H. Blessed Be the Oppressed And Those Who Can Identify with Them. Paperpresented at a meeting of the American Educational Studies Association in Chicago, Feb 23,1972. "Freire is unable to reconcile satisfactorily the condition of peasants having to relyon themselves for their loss of ignorance with their having to be made aware of their stateof oppression."

Griffith, William S. "Paulo Freire." In Paulo Freire. Stanley Grabowski, ed. SyracuseUniversity Publications in Continuing Education, 1972. "Freire's criticisms of education,based primarily on his assumptions about the relationship between teachers and students, areneither new nor particularly useful in bringing about an improvement in the process. Freireleaves little question regarding his willingness to control and restrict the freedom ofthose who cannot see the superiority of his system. The freedom to disagree with the newruling group, following the revolution, is to be restricted to those who have passed someundefined loyalty test. Freire's own professional life since 1959 presents a pattern ofsponsorship by the most favored segments of society, universities, internationalorganizations, and churches, a pattern which may present an incongruous answer to hisquestion: 'What could be more important than to live and work with the oppressed, with the"rejects of life," with the "wretched of the earth?"'"

Kennedy, William B. "Pilgrims of the Obvious or the Not-So-Obvious?" Risk, Vol. 11, No. 1,1975. "At two points I would like to challenge Freire to go further. One is to develop theconcept of 'free space.' He needs to explore more concretely what it means to 'do inhistory' what is historically possible. The second point builds upon Freire's magnificentfaith in the people as the foundation of democratic education. Only a process of engagementby and with the people can be the basis for his radical reversal of traditional educationalassumptions about learning. But the scattered references to the specialized roles of certainpeople, to the role of the revolutionary party in a mass movement, to the characteristics ofthose who serve as educators in action with the educatees, are haunting in the lack ofcompleteness and clarity. In history, and not by magic, how do specialists emerge ineducation for liberation?"

Knowles, Malcolm. The Making of an Adult Educator. Jossey-Bass, 1989. "in 1973 fourenthusiastic people representing two universities in Brazil asked me whether Iwould beinterested m doing afive-day workshop. The first workshop was at the UniversiS of Bahiain Salvador, northern Brazil, ttie workshop went smoothly, in the last hour of S fourth dav£j£S %% ^^J.^^/^^ions. One of the table groups was composed of ItfS ^members from the national department of education in Brasilia. Their spokesman renort^ h^fthey agreed that 'Malcolm Knowles is more subversive than Vm^l^TS^^S^M^political goal of overthrowing the government as integral to his approach, and Serlfore ttegovernment had a basis for exiling him. Knowles, on the other hand, has no political goalsin his andragogical approach, but only the goal of producing self-directed learners. But ifwe succeed m producing truly self-directed learners, they will know what to do about thegovernment, and it will have no basis for exiling anybody as they did with Freire.'"

MacEoin, Gary. "Conscientization for the Masses." National Catholic Reporter, Mar 17, 1972For years I have been searching for an instance in which peasants have broken out of their

^teneithereh2 he "^^ Ul*1' *** h*Ve f0Und n°ne* When Zaaksd Freire' he admitted

Stanley, Manfred. "Literacy." in Paulo Freire. Stanley Grabowski, ed. Syracuse UniversityPublications in Continuing Education, 1972. "Utopianism is a problem in Freire's thought. Itis evident in an uncritical tendency to regard his notion of literacy as the key toliberation. He does not apparently take much note of the complexities, much less the darkside of liberation itself. Freire's views place an extraordinary emphasis upon education asthe instrument of liberation. If Freire were to carry the matter further and adnit thatsocial mobilization of large numbers of unenlightened people is necessary for revolution,Leninism would have to be the next step in his thinking. Under such conditions of massmobilization, both church and secular history suggest that the saintly educators whom Freiredepends on to keep his revolution honest, would turn out to be in short supply."

V. LITERACY

"LIKE MANY EDUCATORS, FREIRE WOULD LIKE TO HAVE IT BOTH WAYS" Daniel Wagner

[fSL?11?02 Fetterraan in !•* Elias in II.; Stanley in IV.; Taylor in VT.; & Zacharakis^Jutz(1986) in X.]

Bugbee, John A. "The Freire Approach to Literacy Review and Reflections." LiteracyDiscussion, Win 1973. "The literacy worker does have some legitimate questions to raise aswell as some issue to take with Freire's ideas concerning the following: At the conceptuallevel who are the oppressors? Given the numerous analyses of Latin American and Third Worldreality, who constitutes and what specifically characterizes those who are oppressed? Surelythere is more to such an identification than the fact of being illiterate and more tooppression that Freire's generic formula of 'any situation in which A objectively exploitsB.» Following from the lack of clarity with respect to the nature of~the 'class' to whichthe oppressed belong and a seeming built-in ambiguity regarding the kinds of struggles towhich the literacy process leads, the literacy worker is wont to ask what sustains aliteracy project. If little more than the slogans of 'liberation,' 'conscientization,'freedom from the culture of silence and freedom for the culture of the word' can be theliteracy worker's creed, then who can be expected to give their allegiance to such aproject, to the risk it entails and to the tremendous effort it demands?"

Conteris, Hiber. "Controversy." Convergence, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1973. "The secular goal ofliteracy promotion (though more sloganeering than meant for real) was being stimulated inNortheast [Brazil] by Freire's 'circle of culture,' by the Catholic bishops' movement,itself inspired by Freire's philosophy and methods, and by the government campaign. Allthese efforts were going to reveal themselves as too young and fragile for their purpose,which was effective integration of the Northeastern peasants into Brazilian society, fromwhich they had been excluded for centuries."

Stotsky, Sandra. "On Literacy Anthologies and Adult Education." College English, Dec 1990"Although Freire describes his pedagogy as 'liberatory' [in Literacy], the selections frommore advanced reading materials, which clearly illustrate the nature of their politicalcontent, suggest very little possibility for the development of critical thinking. Stronglyopposed to what he calls a laissez-faire system of education, Freire suggests that theliteracy teacher is supposed to teach his students 'what he thinks is just.' The adultlearners, he points out, are supposed to learn how to 'think correctly.' In fact, thephilosophy underlying the pedagogy of the oppressed seems less a theory of liberatoryeducation than a theory of literacy as an instrument of social control."

Wagner, Daniel A. "Literacy Campaigns." Comparative Education Review, May 1989. "Freire ismore cautious in this volume [Literacy] than in earlier works. We also see a Freire who hasbeen caught in difficult policy situations, such as that of mother-tongue versus other-tongue literacy. After receiving criticism for the 'failure' of his method in Guinea-Bissau, Freire blames the 'inviability of using Portuguese as the only vehicle ofinstruction in the literacy campaign.' But he goes on to say that 'the legitimation of BlackEnglish in America as an educational tool does not, however, preclude the need to acquireproficiency in the linguistic code of the majority.' In other words, like many educators, hewould like to have it both ways."

••

VI. CONTRADICTIONS

'PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED IS OFTEN ILLOGICAL AND INCONSISTENT" Rena Foy

[SEE ALSO: Walker in VII.]

Foy, Rena. "Review of Pedagogy of the Oppressed," Educational Studies, Oct 1971. "It isoften illogical and inconsistent. Freire's method appears to be effective if not altogetherhonest."

Giroux, Henry A. "Paulo Freire and the Politics of Postcolonialism." In Paulo Freire. PeterMcLaren & Peter Leonard, eds. Routledge, 1993. "The contradictions raised in Freire's workoffer a number of questions that need to be addressed by critical educators about not onlyFreire's work but also their own. For instance, what happens when the language of theeducator is not the same as that of the oppressed? How is it possible to be vigilant againsttaking up a notion of language, politics, and rationality that undermines recognizing one'sown partiality and the voices and experiences of Others? How does one explore thecontradiction between validating certain forms of 'correct' thinking and the pedagogicaltask of helping students assume rather than simply follow the dictates of authority,regardless of how radical the project informed by such authority?"

Isaacs, Charles. "Praxis of Paulo Freire." Critical Anthropology, Spr 1972. "Freire's briefdiscussion casts the limit-situation in such an optimistic light that it seems in danger oflosing its meaning. The mode of production is not mentioned here at all. This is a weaknessin the Freirian dialectic; he equivocates between idealism and materialism, at one pointstating the primacy of the material base, and at others appearing to ignore thatsubstructure in an elaboration of its ideal and linguistic expressions."

Leach, Tom. "Paulo Freire." International Journal of Lifelong Education, Vol. I, No. 3,1982. "Many charges have been laid against Paulo Freire. Some have seen him as a dangerousand violent revolutionary. Others have seen him as a quaint, rather unoriginal and eclecticphilosopher. It is difficult not to feel that he richly deserves the accusation that he is,jackdaw-like, borrowing concepts, which cannot be torn from the detailed material andeconomic arguments in which they are embedded. Freire does not wholly ignore basic materialconsiderations. However, it is fair to say that he gives them only fleeting consideration.One major criticism had been that Freire's concept of dialogue is contradictory. In my viewthere are considerable grounds for saying he is wrong-headed about material conditions and

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therefore for calling into question his whole concept of dialogue. Others suggest thatFreire's concept of dialogue is 'contradictory' because it involves strong interventionpurpose and structure on the part of 'teacher-learners.' Are his theories about dialogueaching more thanan elaborate attempt to bridge the gap between the leaders and ttepeopleby blurring their differences? His comprehensive and frequently unclear terminology^ Ppersistently veils and perhaps also dissipates the trust of his writing. The reader's9X?v1a5thisS a?e.fruStrated constantlY by the countervailing tensions and paradoxes which

Nasaw, David. "Reconsidering Freire," Liberation, Sep/Oct 1974. "Freire has little to say tous. The fault with Freire's theorizing is that he analyzes the social situation with someclarity, but then ignores it completely to talk about the 'dialogic' process. Freire is wellaware of the incongruity between the ethical imperatives he postulates in theory, and thereal world. But while he recognizes the contradiction, he fails to offer a means by whichcategorical 'oughts' can be translated into daily practice. On first reading, Freire'seclecticism is refreshing. Considered more carefully, it's a disaster. Existentialist,Marxist, structuralist, Christian: Freire fails in his attempt to graft his Christianethical categories onto his Marxist concept of historicity."

Schipani, Daniel S. Conscientization and Creativity. University Press of America, 1984. "Aconflict and contradiction is present between the denunciation of manipulation andmaintaining that the goal of education must be the realization of a certain kind ofrevolutionary option. Another related area for critical evaluation along these lines refersto the oversimplification and generalizations inherent in the dichotomizing e.g., oppressed—oppressors analytical process. We have to underscore a major obstacle for themanifestation of creativity, which requires appreciation of complexity and tolerance forambivalence and ambiguity. Freire does not always do justice to the very conscientizationthrust by overlooking the variety and nuances, richness and precariousness, of socialreality. Freire's anthropology does not take consistently into account the diverse sourcesof limitations to human freedom. Consequently, it tends to present a too simplistic andoptimistic view of the actual possibilities of socio-political transformation. Further, thisradical change is referred to often as if it were merely a matter of perceiving itsnecessity and then willing its occurrence. The Marxist influence certainly does not help tocorrect these appreciations, which fail to take into account the complexity of the problemof the human predicament and the pervasive presence of radical evil in particular."

Sherman, Ann I. "Two Views of Emotion in the Writings of Paulo Freire," Educational Theory,Win 1980. "On the one hand, Freire states that we need certain emotions (e.g. love, mutualtrust) in order for dialogue, and thus education for critical consciousness, to develop. Onthe other hand, Freire talks about the necessity of overcoming emotionality which he sees asone of the prime characteristics of a naive and irrational consciousness. It is this basicambiguity which I will discuss."

Taylor, P.V. Retexturing the Word and the World. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,University of Warwick, 1991. "Most studies of Freire concentrate on his method andtechniques. This present work seeks to go beneath the obvious practice of literacy teaching,to analyze the construction of his pedagogy and to explore the contradictions posed both byFreire's life and by his work. The fundamental contradiction is exposed: that literacy,which means 'learning to read' can never achieve its ideals of dialogue."

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VII. THE TEACHER & THE TAUGHT

•FREIRE'S PRIVILEGING OF THE TEACHER-INTELLECTUAL'S VOICEOVER THE LEARNER'S VOICE HAS BEEN SCORED

AS A BUREAUCRATIC IMPOSITION THAT THWARTS CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING"Rolland Paulston

Addo, Herb. "Beyond Eurocentricity." In Development as Social Transformation. Houghton &Stoughton, 1985. "There is a sort of pervading, nervous ambiguity about the roles thatscholars allot intellectuals and revolutionary leaders in the whole process of transformingsocieties. This nervousness shows clearly in Freire's work."

Caulfield, Peter J. "From Brazil to Buncombe County." Educational Forum, Sum 1991. "Iquestion Freire on one very important point. My problem concerns what happens to studentswho are, as he says, 'increasingly posed with problems' regarding their world. He arguesthat 'they will gradually come to regard themselves as committed.' By committed, he appearsto mean committed to a leftist, if not outright revolutionary, agenda. But just what is therole of the teacher, the problem poser, in fostering that commitment? Freire insists thatteachers should never impose their views of a problem on students, though he does not sayteachers should or even could be neutral. The teacher does enter into the exchange of viewsconcerning the problem, but ostensibly and simply as an equal participant. Yet, is itreasonable to assume that students will view teachers as equals? More likely, they will giveteachers' views considerably more weight than those of their classmates or their own. Infact, more recently Freire was arguing, 'As an educator, you can only maintain anondirective posture if you attempt a deceitful discourse; that is a discourse from theperspective of the dominant class."

Elias, John L. Paulo Freire. Krieger Publishing, 1994. "Freire is probably the best knowneducator in the world today. No educator in recent history has had his books read by as manypersons in as many places of the world. No educator has spoken to as many teachers,activists, and scholars. Freire's faulty view of human nature gives rise to an overlyoptimistic and simplistic view of the possibility of social and political change. At times,one gets the impression from reading Freire that human and societal change can be broughtabout simply by willing it. At other times, Freire comes through as the religious preacher,urging people to live better lives without showing them how to cope with the personal andsocietal obstacles that make the living of this life very difficult, if not impossible. Anumber of criticisms have been made of Freire's social theory. At times his theory is vague,general, and imprecise. Freire rarely presents evidence of an empirical nature or citessociological research for his analysis. He is also too prone to divide societies into goodand bad, without offering adequate criteria by which this distinction is made. The weakestpart of Freire's theory is his theory of political revolution. Learning for Freire issubordinated to political and social purposes. Such a theory is open to the charge ofindoctrination and manipulation. The process of conscientization entails for Freire aradical denunciation of dehumanizing structures, accompanied by the proclamation of a newreality to be created by humans. Freire is confident that this will come about through freedialogue in which learners and educators participate as equals. Yet is there not a subtlemanipulation built into this method, given the lack of education in the students and theobvious political purposes of the teachers?"

O'Meara, Philip. "The Relevance of Freire." GISRA, Mar 1973. "Freire's ideas are potentiallydangerous, even in regard to their own goals, for his methods can be subverted subtly, andquickly create a new domination in the name of liberation. Those professionals who initiallyinvestigate and code must be open men [sic] a breed not discovered often among sociologistsand educators whose jargon seems to contain all truth. And if these men pervert their trust,how easily could these 'codes' be used to brainwash. Anyone who has worked professionally ineducation must fear."

Paulston, Rolland G. "Ways of Seeing Education and Social Change in Latin America." LatinAmerican Research Review." Vol. 27, No. 3, 1992. "Freire's privileging of the teacher^intellectual's voice over the learner's voice has been scored as a bureaucratic imposition

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that thwarts consciousness-raising. Responding to such criticism, Freire has countered(unconvmcingly, I believe) that although educators should reject 'arrogantauthoritarianism, we should also remain vigilant about excessive or irresponsiblespontaneity that in its lack of seriousness and intellectual discipline undermines theteacher's necessary authority.' His seeming inability to stand back and let the studentexperience critical insight in his or her own terms has relegated Freire to the role ofideological guru hovering over practice."

Pitt, James. "Review of Pedagogy of the Oppressed." Journal of Black Studies, Sep 1972."Freire's egalitarian methodology for education is intended to be politically subversive ofoppressive regimes. It seems likely, however, that it could serve to legitimate oppositionto any routinized form of delegated authority."

Spring, Joel. A Primer of Libertarian Education. Free Life Editions, 1975. "Certainly PauloFreire's educational methods are meant to lead to basic changes in the individual. But oneof the possible limitations is that character structure is deeply rooted in the early stagesof the child's psychic development. That is, whether a child develops an authoritarian ornon-authoritarian style of social conduct might depend more on early development than onlater forms of socialization such as formal education."

Torres, Carlos Alberto. "Paulo Freire as Secretary of Education in the Municipality of SaoPaulo." Comparative Education Review, May 1994. "This article discusses educational policyformation from 1989 to 1992 under the leadership of Paulo Freire, secretary of education forthe city of Sao Paulo, in the democratic-socialist Municipal Administration of the Partidodos Trabalhadores (Workers' Party; henceforth referred to as 'PT'). Freire was accused ofbeing a Nazi-fascist in the exercising of his authority as secretary. This criticism camefrom PT militants working as appointed officials in the Secretariat, which prompted Freireto fire three of them. Freire was accused of being a kind of Brazilian Nicolae Ceausescu,and, like the former Romanian dictator, a nepotist. This criticism arose because two ofFreire's books, and one by his older daughter, Magdalena, were included in the bibliographyfor an examination given to perspective teachers in the Secretariat. In the debatesurrounding the books, Freire was labeled an 'ideologue,' with criticisms ranging fromaccusations he was using his position to 'force the reading of his deliriums,' to claimsthat 'they arrive to power and want to transmit their ideology.' There were also those whoaccused Freire of attempting to profit by making his books mandatory reading for an exam."["Freire resigned to continue his writing and lecturing in 1991," Carlos Alberto Torres,"Foreword," in Reading Paulo Freire by Moacir Gadotti. State University of New York Press,1994.]

Walker, Jim. "The End of Dialogue. In Literacy and Revolution, Robert Mackie, ed. Continuum,1981. "Those looking to Freire for political guidance might be surprised where he leadsthem, and they should certainly be displeased. There are deep contradictions in Freire,which makes the realization of his basic human ideals unlikely in the context of hispolitics. Indeed Freire's politics threaten to turn back on and attack the very movementtowards humanization and liberation it is designed to promote. Anxious to avoid charges ofelitism, he tries to show the dialogical process as progressively blurring differencesbetween [leaders and the people], so that they become 'equally the subjects of revolutionaryaction' and 'actors in communication.' In just what sense the 'teacher-learner-leaders' andthe 'learner-teacher-people' are equal remains obscure. Nor is equality really likely tohappen within Freire's political framework. One might expect the people to be given power ofsome sort over their leaders, but democracy does not figure in the theory of dialogue. Thecontradictions in Freire's theoretical enterprise, within the context of subordination ofall basic social functions to the processes of a single organization, the party, produce thenegation of some of his most basic ideals. Freire senses these dangers of course, in hisexpressed fear of the threat of bureaucracy; but what remedies are suggested by hisorientation? More moral attentiveness and application to duty on the part of the leaders,and more conscientization of the oppressed by the leaders? We are not only moving in acircle, we are trapped in it. The tighter it gets, the more like puritanism and the lesslike liberation our new position will seem."

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VIII. SEXISM

"THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A MOMENT WHEN READING FREIRETHAT I HAVE NOT REMAINED AWARE OF THE SEXISM OF THE LANGUAGE." bell hooks

[SEE ALSO: Balke in I.; & Ellsworth in IX.]

Brady, Jeanne. "Critical Literacy, Feminism, and a Politics of Representation." In Politicsof Liberation. Peter L. McLaren &Colin Lankshear, eds. Routledge, 1994. "Tied to afover^emphasis on class struggle, Freire ignored the various forms of domination and socialstruggles being addressed by feminists, minorities, ecologists, and other social actors -*,»most glaring example can be found in Freire's earlier work, wherHhelSje^Ind^; tfdomination are framed in thoroughgoing patriarchal discourse. Not only are^om^Ter2ed inFreire's language of domination and struggle, there is no attempt to even aSle&fhowexperience is gendered differently. Afeminist re-reading of F^irrhinrg^KlSt Msexclusive focus on class as the only form of domination." against his

^Ro^e^f9"^ h^° F'eil±" In paul° ^ire. Peter McLaren &Peter Leonard,eas. Routledge, 1993. There has never been a moment when reading Freire that I have notremained aware of not only the sexism of the language but the wav taMkTStarTlSl'Third world political leaders) constructs aphaUc^ntr^c ^of'to^ En2T^ !? **1 WI*c^0,.of Patriarchal manhood are always linked as Sh ?Sef«e oneand the same For me this is always a source of anguish for it represents a blind scot inthe vision of men who have profound insight." *«.«*««> a aima spot in

Weiler, Kathleen. "Freire and a Feminist Pedagogy of Difference " In Polit,V« nf r<h»«,4-,-^Peter L. McLaren &Colin Lankshear, editors. Routledge, 5II?%rom a^Inflt^rSvePedagogy of^ Oppressed is striking in its male referent. Much more Slesoml ifS^UureJ° f?flne terms such M '""anization' more specifically in terns of meTanl woLno^L^lWhlt!i ?r °^r.for^ of socially defined Sentitiesftte Sp?LHf1!eda^'of the Oppressed is that in struggling against oppression the oppressed^ move toward97true humanity. But this leaves unaddressed the foims of oppressionex^riencedbv differentgroups. Freire sets out these goals of liberation and social S^^oliticarSansfor^ti^ras£££ gS't^^ves6^1"9 ^ - PriVUeged "««" ofexisi^S^8

IX. APPLICABLE TO OTHER GROUPS?

"PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED DOES NOT HELP IN UNDERSTANDING EITHER REVOLUTIONSOR EDUCATION IN GENERAL. THE RANKEST ABSURDITY IS THE **VU1jUTIONS

APPLICATION OF FREIRE'S ANALYSIS TOTHE YOUNG MIDDLE CLASS STUDENTS IN THIS COUNTRY." Wayne Urban

rii^r^Vn^ff^v-' ?** D°^'t al8 Feel ^"ering?" m Caching for Change, KathrynGeismar &Guitele Nicoleau, editors. Harvard Educational Review ReprLrseHeiTi993 »%evassumptions, goals, and pedagogical practices fundamental to the literature on critical Ypedagogy namely 'empowerment,' 'student voice,' 'dialogue,' and even the term 'criScal' arerepressive myths that perpetuate relations of domination. When participants in our[University of Wisconsin 'Media and Anti-Racist Pedagogies'] class attempted to put intoS£wCe P^f^P^ons offered in the literature concerning enpowenten^sSden^voicerand^~3 <KiTf? ^V?* bY !*elre Six timeS as m«3e], we produced reauJS'tKwere not only unhelpful, but actually exacerbated the very conditions we were trying to workSEF;h^C^in?/U^entriSm^ racism' Sexism' classism, and 'banking education?? Tb theextent that our efforts to put discourses of critical pedagogy into practice led us toreproduce relations of domination in our classroom, these discourses were 'working through'us in repressive ways, and had themselves become vehicles of repression. To the extent wedisengaged ourselves from those aspects and moved in another direction, we 'worked through'fz °?S,°£ ^e llterature,s highly abstract language ('myths') of who 'should' be and whatshould be happening in the classroom, and into classroom practices that were context

specific and seemed to be much more responsive to our own understandings of our social

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identities and situations."

Ewert, David Merrill. Freire's Concept of Critical Consciousness and Social Structure injtaral Zaire. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin7T977. "The findinassuggest that while Freire's approach may be effective as an educational strategy, itsrevolutionary potential appears to be somewhat limited in rural Africa. People in thisZainan community do not generally define themselves as a class whose problems are afunction of a social structure dominated by an elite class with conflicting interestsConsequently, the people of (the village of] Mudiwamba would rather exploit theirconnections with the elite tnan unite in a struggle against them as a class of oppressors, abasic premise of Freire's educational model."

McLaren, Peter L., & Henry A. Giroux. "Foreword" in Reading Paulo Freire by Moacir Gadotti.State University of New York Press, 1994. "Few educators have received as much widespreadacclaim and worldwide recognition as the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire."

Oliveira, Rosiska Darcy de & Pierre Dominice. The Pedagogy of the Oppressed Hie Oppressionof Pedagogy. Institute of Cultural Action, 1974. "Freire's thought is in a somewhatparadoxical situation. There is between the success of his writings and the practicaldevelopment of his thinking a distance which grows larger and larger. His success is tied tothe fact that more and more people, apparently from many different social groups, easilyrecognize themselves in his critique of alienating education and the mechanisms whichprogram consciousness. They are attracted by his propositions which deal with liberatingactions. On the other hand, the whole problem of historical agents which are capable ofputting into practice any radical alternative and the difficulty of determining the timesand the places when struggle leads to real social change—these make difficult the passagefrom consciousness of the need for change to the point of concrete action for liberation."

Urban, Wayne J. Comments on Paulo Freire. Paper presented at a meeting of the AmericanEducational Studies Association in Chicago, Feb 23, 1972. "Pedagogy of the Oppressed doesnot help in understanding either revolutions or education in general. The rankest absurdity,however, is the application of Freire's analysis to the young middle class students in thiscountry."

Woock, Roger. Paulo Freire. Paper presented at a meeting of the American Educational StudiesAssociation in Chicago, Feb 23, 1972. "At first the charge that Freire is not arevolutionary may strike the reader as being absurd for certainly he uses the appropriatelanguage. These terms occur, however, in a curious vacuum without being rooted- in a socialor economic context. If we have learned anything about revolutionary possibilities in thelast 20 years, it is that revolutions will take different forms in different social andeconomic situations. Revolution in Cuba has not been the same as revolution in Chile. By notlinking his revolutionary model to a particular social and economic context, he makes itthat much more difficult for those of us not in Northeastern Brazil to find it useful. Whospecifically here in North America are the oppressor and the oppressed, where does violenceplay a role, where should it not play a role? Are teachers in public schools oppressors orare they part of the oppressed? To answer these questions one must virtually write anotherbook filling in the social and economic context, without which not much use can be made ofFreire's analysis."

X. BLANCA FACUNDO'S MONOGRAPH

"IF STUDENTS IN ADULT EDUCATION ARE REQUIRED TO READPEDAGOGY OF TOE OPPRESSED,

THEN THEY SHOULD ALSO READ THIS MONOGRAPH" Jeff Zacharakis-Jutz

Facundo, Blanca (1984A). Issues for an Evaluation of Freire-Inspired Programs in the UnitedStates and Puerto Rico. ERIC ED 243 998 [CALL 1-800-443-ERIC TO FIND OUT HOW TO OBTAIN]. "Istarted this work with the history of Paulo Freire, a human being who later on becameinternationally famous and, I believe, deformed, romanticized and perhaps misunderstood. Theidea is not to judge Paulo Freire. We owe him justice and respect. For me, this means being

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as critical of his ideas and practices as he taught us to be critical of ours. It is timethat we do both. That is what I've tried to do."

Facundo, Blanca, ed (1984B). Alternativas, Apr/May. Includes excerpts from eleven reactionsto the monograph. Here are three:

"[TOM HEANEY:] 'Congratulations on having produced an insightful and critical analysisof Freire's work. The bibliographic references alone would have made your work invaluable. Ilearned much from your reflections and am left with far more questions than I had beforereceiving your manuscript.'

"[FRANK ADAMS:] 'Your essay on Freire and the programs his works inspired in the UnitedStates is at once touching and refreshing. You manage at once to be most personal yetobjective. I admire what you have brought off here. I am still digging beneath your calm butpenetrating style. It is one of the best essays on adult education I have read in months.'

"[HENRY GIROUX:] 'I must admit that I have fundamental differences with yourinterpretation of Freire."

Kidd, Ross. Letter to Blanca Facundo, Sep 10, 1984. "Your manuscript is wonderful, clear,well-argued, a real contribution. The contribution I think it makes is the publicde-deification of Freire. Freire has always asked us to be more critical, but we've allowedour affection for him and the important impact he had on all of us to get in the way. Now Ithink it's time to move beyond Freire, something I'm sure he understands himself. Freire hadan incredible impact on us, in spite of his shortcomings and the mystified way weinterpreted his writings and practice. Many of us have never faced up to (or been aware of)the reality of Freire's practice. You've taken the bull by the horns, brought the evidenceinto a public forum, and helped us all to come to terms with our own mystifications ofFreire. My own copy has been loaned to many friends and it's been well-thumbed."

Zacharakis-Jutz, Jeff (1986). "Review of Issues for an Evaluation of Freire-InspiredPrograms in the United States and Puerto Rico. Adult Literacy and Basic Education, Vol 10,No. 3. "Freire|s projects in Brazil were pilot experiments, which were too small to fullytest his theories. His efforts in Chile did not significantly reduce the literacy rate. InSection 7, 'Lessons of Guinea-Bissau,' Facundo suggests that the significance of thisproject for Freire was that in a Third World context he could test whether or not histheories of literacy could serve in national reconstruction. Based on the doctoraldissertation of Linda Harasim, Literacy and National Reconstruction in Guinea-Bissau: ACritique of the Freirian Literacy Campaign, Facundo discusses why Freire's project failed tosignificantly improve literacy in Guinea-Bissau. Harasim states that 'this failure wasunexpected and raises many questions for educators both in Guinea-Bissau andinternationally.' Facundo adds, 'More important for our work in the U.S.: How many of usknow that Freire's practice in Guinea-Bissau was a declared failure in 1980? Why has notFreire discussed this very important matter with his different audiences in Puerto Rico andthe U.S.?' If students in adult education are required to read Pedagogy of the Oppressed,then they should also read this monograph. While it is part of ERIC'S data base, it is notpart of the Information Series although it should be. Dissemination of this classic could befacilitated if it was published and available in every library in a bound copy."

Zacharakis-Jutz, Jeff (1988). "Post-Freirean Adult Education." Adult Education Quarterly,Fall. "It has been nearly 20 years since the first publication in English of Freire'sPedagogy of the Oppressed. We have entered the era of post-Freirean adult education in theUnited States. Facundo, in her highly critical monograph of Freire inspired programs,recounts the early history of grassroots adult educators in the United States whoexperimented with Freirean concepts. They encountered the complexities of using arevolutionary ideology in a country that is nowhere close to revolution. As a result,Facundo points out, these efforts quickly faded. Almost 20 years later, Freire and his workhave been thoroughly studied, institutionalized and grossly compromised by academe."

IF YOU WANT TO BE IN CONTACT WITH DR. FACUNDO,PLEASE SEND LETTERS TO HER IN CARE OF:

JOHN OHLIGER, BASIC CHOICES, PO BOX 9598, MADISON, WI 53715