EDUCATION, THE HUMAN CONDITION AND FREEDOM: A FREIREAN APPROACH

Abstract

This article places the theme Education, the human conditions and freedom within Freirean thinking. It prioritizes the allegory of the journey and the image of reading excerpts from the work of Paulo Freire. It raises the hypothesis of the existence of ontology – a vision of the human being – in that author’s work, necessary for the project of a world presented in the conception of Education, the practice of freedom. In presenting the contribution of the investigative dynamic in the core themes, it holds that the way of carrying out education, represented by Pedagogy of the oppressed, is configured as Cultural action for freedom. This cultural action refers to educational practice that is dialogic, problematizing, loving and courageous enough to lead human beings – the educators and the educated – to reflect on their world. Education represents the possibility of humanizing human beings, in the concept of ontology as being more. On the one hand, it is argued that the theorization of the human in Freire is presented as a contribution to the organization of the educational practices in different situations, from school to social movements. On the other, it respects the production of educational knowledge from a critical perspective, within the scope of the action and formation of teachers. The Freirean undertaking intends to address human beings to the world, so that together they may dialogue about their limit-situations and on the beauty of reading them in order to have their say. The leitmotif – the central thread and raison d’être – of Freirean theorization is not only education, but radical love for human beings, the world and life itself.