Paulo Freire – an insight into the man and his philosophy

Professor Budd Hall not only worked with Paulo Freire but was a close friend. Professor Hall talked about the author of 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed' at two events held at the University

IT is 50 years since the publication of a seminal book from a man described as “the most influential educational thinker of the 20th Century”.   One research centre at the University of Huddersfield marked the anniversary through two events that featured a professor who worked closely with Paulo Freire, author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

The events were organised by the Huddersfield Centre for Research in Education and Society (HudCRES) in tandem with SCUTREA (Standing Conference on University Teaching and Research in the Education of Adults) and the special guest ‘in conversation’ was Professor Budd Hall, a Canadian who first encountered Freire while working in Africa in the early 1970s.  Both conversations were hosted by Senior Lecturer Sarah Williamson.

During the events, Professor Hall outlined the life and theories of Paulo Freire and furnished a sequence of reminiscences that illustrated his distinctive style of lecturing and engaging with audiences around the world.  He also read his poignant poem Surf on Pauliño, written to celebrate the Birthday of Paulo Freire in the year after his death, 1998.

When Paulo Freire then began to develop “cultural circles” that encouraged discussion of subjects such as human rights, Brazil’s military regime forced him into exile.

He published Pedagogy of the Oppressed and developed an international reputation as an educationalist, travelling the world as Education Secretary of the World Council of Churches.  It was on a visit to Africa that he first met the young Budd Hall, who was working in adult education in Tanzania.

“There were no books rich in theory to guide us.  No major theoretical texts that spoke of the transformative process of ordinary people learning to read.  We were just doing the best that we could,” Professor Hall told the Huddersfield audiences.

“One day a friend said she’d seen this extraordinary book, written by somebody from Brazil.  I borrowed a copy, started to read and it was like a huge extravaganza of mental fireworks going off in my mind.  Lights were going on, doors were opening.  I had never read anything that acted on me so powerfully.”

Based at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, Professor Hall is currently UNESCO Co-Chair in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, and Co-Director of the Knowledge for Change Consortium.  For about 20 years, he was head of International Council for Adult Education and in that capacity he frequently worked with Paulo Freire.

One questioner asked which of Freire’s ideas were of particular relevance today.

“The idea that education is not neutral,” said Professor Hall.  “This is something that we need to be reminded of because these days education is often seen as instrumental, as a way to create a skilled workforce able to plug into a global assembly line and that its purpose is economic production. 

“It is important to remind ourselves that education is so much more powerful than that.  It may do some of those other things, but it is also the means by which we create the kinds of communities that we want.”

• Watch the recording made of the event on Friday 15th February here.
• If you would like to hear about future events organised by HudCRES, please follow us on twitter @HudCRES or join our mailing list.