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Literacy, Social Movements, and Class Consciousness: Paths from Freire and the São Paulo Experience
Author(s) -
Pilar O'Cadiz María,
Torres Carlos Alberto
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
anthropology and education quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.531
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1548-1492
pISSN - 0161-7761
DOI - 10.1525/aeq.1994.25.3.04x0140j
Subject(s) - critical consciousness , sociology , agency (philosophy) , curriculum , literacy , narrative , pedagogy , government (linguistics) , social movement , articulation (sociology) , working class , consciousness , gender studies , social science , political science , politics , psychology , linguistics , philosophy , neuroscience , law
During a socialist administration in São Paulo, Brazil, from 1989 to 1992, a movement for literacy training of youths and adults (MOVA) and for a curriculum reform was established in the city's elementary schools. This article describes the socialist educational projects and Freire's work in São Paulo. It provides both a theoretical discussion of the projects' Freirean premises and a narrative of the experience of a particular group of literacy learners in one São Paulo favela (shantytown). The authors demonstrate a special concern for the articulation between the public sector (i.e., a government agency) and various social movements, as manifested in the MOVA literacy movement. The conclusion calls for “long life” to the creative imagination that inspires and propels such projects of education for social change.