9780807834190 (cloth : alk. paper)

9781469622248

"In the twentieth century, illiteracy and its elimination were political issues important enough to figure in the fall of governments (as in Brazil in 1964), the building of nations (in newly independent African countries in the 1970s), and the construction of a revolutionary order (Nicaragua in 1980). This political biography of Paulo Freire (1921-97), who played a crucial role in shaping international literacy education, also presents a thoughtful examination of the volatile politics of literacy during the Cold War.

A native of Brazil's impoverished northeast, Freire developed adult literacy training techniques that involved consciousness-raising, encouraging peasants and newly urban peoples to see themselves as active citizens who could transform their own lives. Freire's work for state and national government agencies in Brazil in the early 1960s eventually aroused the suspicion of the Brazilian military, as well as of U.S. government aid programs. Political pressures led to Freire's brief imprisonment, following the military coup of 1964, and then to more than a decade and a half in exile. During this period, Freire continued his work in Chile, Nicaragua, and postindependence African countries, as well as in Geneva with the World Council of Churches and in the United States at Harvard University."--Pub. desc.

Paulo Freire and the cold war politics of literacy

Internet Archive collection.

Introduction : Paulo Freire and the twentieth-century drive for development

1. Entering history

2. The revolution that wasn't and the revolution that was in Brazil, 1961-1964

3. Reformist Chile, peasant consciousness, and the meaning of Christian democracy, 1964-1969

4. Paulo Freire and the World Council of Churches in the first and third worlds, 1969-1980

5. The Sandinistas and the last utopian experiment of the Cold War, 1979-1980

6. The long, slow transition to democracy in Brazil and the end(?) of utopia, 1980-1997

Epilogue : Legacies of a Cold War intellectual in a post-Cold War world.

1945 > 1989

Literacy > Political aspects.

Literacy > Political aspects > Latin America.