THE CHILD UNDER THE SHADE OF THE MANGO TREE: ROOTS AND FRUITS OF FREIRE’S WORK

raízes e frutos da obra freiriana

Abstract

The article is organized ded into four sections and covers Paulo Freire’s existencial, theoretical and political trajectory in a narrative style. The first part focuses on the path of creating the literacy-consciousness method, exploring its existential and social roots and its contradictory impacts in Brazil and in the world. The second session analyzes the reinventions of the Freirian perspective in the light of the encounter with other contexts and intellectuals, by stressing especially Freire’s contribution to the process of decolonization of the former Portuguese colonies in Africa. The third session focuses on some fundamental aspects of Freire’s perspective, such as the centrality of dialogue, the elaboration of theory from a critical reflection on practice, the reciprocity of the process of learning between teacher and student. Finally, the article considers some of the main current challenges, arguing the role of social movements as reinventers of Freire’s pedagogy.