By Angela Biz Antunes, Janaina Abreu, Moacir Gadotti, and Paulo Roberto Padilha, directors, Paulo Freire Institute
“The world is not finished. It is always in the process of becoming.” – Paulo Freire
What is the Paulo Freire Institute?
The Paulo Freire Institute (IPF) was created in 1991, in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, with the mission of “educating to transform.” The institute is a non-profit, non-governmental organization inspired by the praxis of Paulo Freire, its patron. Freire wanted to bring together people and institutions to contribute to the construction of a world with social justice and equal rights, through reflection, exchanging experiences, developing pedagogical practices, and conducting research.
Such initiatives contributed to the birth of new IPFs in Brazil and in other countries, expanding and reinventing Freire’s legacy of dreams and utopias. The Paulo Freire Institute works to spread emancipatory education, meaningful teaching and learning, and to combat all forms of oppression, violence, prejudice, discrimination, exclusion, and degradation. We develop human rights education projects, educating people to practise planetary citizenship from childhood.
The Paulo Freire Institute presents itself less as an institution and more as a collective of people. For over 30 years, it has been a large and generous space for meetings, bringing people and institutions from various parts of the world together, dreaming of another possible world. For us, the dream of a society of equal and different beings will never end.
We participate in education forums, such as the Youth and Adult Education (EJA) Forums in the city and state of São Paulo. The Paulo Freire Institute is part of the National EJA Commission, is a representative of the Brazilian Network of Education in Human Rights, and is a member of the National Committee for Education and Culture in Human Rights. Working together with organizations and social movements, we fight for democratic public education, developing research and training guided by Freire’s philosophy.
The struggle for public education in Brazil
Neoliberalism conceives of education as a commodity, reducing our identities to that of consumers and undermining the humanistic dimension of education. The opposite of this, emancipatory education, affirms the educational principle of building knowledge based on dialogue.
Educational injustice is part of the wider injustices that exist in Brazil. We live in a democracy of pro-claimed rights and unfulfilled promises. Only in a real, popular, participatory democracy can we achieve and expand access to human rights. This is the essence of the emancipatory and transformative education practised by Paulo Freire.
In the last decade, with the expansion of ultra-conservative neoliberalism in Brazil and constant attacks against the Paulo Freire Institute, the fight for emancipatory public education has not been easy. Fortunately, we have the solidarity and generous support of many people and institutions that share the same ideals. The BCTF’s support was instrumental when we were under the Bolsonaro government and continues to be now, at the beginning of President Lula’s third term.
The attacks on the Paulo Freire Institute are attacks against the ideas Freire defended: radical democracy, with social justice, equal rights, and education for all—ideas the extreme right actively tries to dismantle.
We are thrilled to see children and young people participating in the construction of democracy at schools today. In Latin America and in Brazil, particularly, the struggle for the democratization of public school management has recently been strengthened by the creation of school councils and student unions. Participation and democratization in the public education system is the most practical way of educating for and through citizenship. In a hierarchical society like ours, democracy needs to be continuously fought for. It’s never fully achieved.
These are steps forward, but there are also setbacks. Among the setbacks is the introduction of civic-military schools. This model of fascist education from the first half of the 20th century in Brazil is disciplinary, indoctrinating, and without any critical reflection. It’s introduction into our system will work against the struggle for emancipatory education.
Paulo Freire said, “The world is not finished. It is always in the process of becoming.” He insisted that we assume ourselves as “makers of the future.” This awareness keeps alive what conservatives and reactionaries want to kill: hope, utopia, dreams, and the possibility of change.
International solidarity in action
One of our greatest joys in recent years has been our collaboration with educators from British Columbia, Canada, and now, in its third year, with educators from Latin America. Sharing experiences has been a great learning opportunity for us.
After reflecting on the first year of this collaboration, called the Paulo Freire Journey, we created an activity called the “intervention project” (an action research project), which the BCTF calls an inquiry project (see pages 12–15). The objective was to improve practice by addressing a relevant issue in our work as educators on school grounds or in the communities where we work. We learned from Paulo Freire that the meaning of teachers continuing their education lies in the possibility for them to critically reflect on their practices, and relearn and modify those practices.
The BCTF and CoDevelopment Canada’s team dedicated the same level of attention and care to the Paulo Freire Journey as we did. Democratic criteria were used to select teacher participants. The educators who were present at the first two journeys showed the richness and diversity of British Columbia teachers. We see common dreams and struggles. We were strengthened on these journeys.
Just as the practices of oppression and denial of rights become internationalized, it is essential for us, in our activism and fight for democratic public education, to unite, learn from each other, and strengthen the struggle for dreams we know are possible. We hope to continue teaching and learning from the BCTF, working toward international solidarity from a decolonial perspective.