Reinventing Freire in the 21st century:

This year we remember three centennials that inspire many progressive educators around the world. First, 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of Summerhill, one of the first experiments (if not the first) on school democracy in the world. Second, this year we celebrate the 100th birthday of Edgar Morin, a French sociologist and philosopher who dedicated his life to the pursuit of social justice and made insightful contributions to the role of education to promote democracy, equality, social transformation, and sustainability (see, for instance, Morin 2002). Third, this year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Paulo Freire (1921-1997), one of the most influential educational thinkers of the second half of the 20th century. Given space constraints and the theme of this special issue of CICE, in this paper we will focus on the connections between some of Paulo Freire’s ideas (particularly those related to citizenship education and school democracy) and a process known as School Participatory Budgeting. “I don't want to be followed; I want to be reinvented”, Paulo Freire said on several occasions. It is in this spirit that we approach this paper. Inspired by Freire’s ideas, and especially by his practice as an educator in Brazil (both before his exile and after his return), in this paper we discuss the recent development and expansion of a process known as School Participatory Budgeting (School PB). This model emanates from Freire’s project of Escola Cidadã, which constitutes an interesting school- or district-wide experience from the global south that can be adapted to many contexts. Since its modest origins in Brazil, School PB has now been taken up in other cities and states across the US (e.g. Chicago, New York) and in many other countries across the globe, from Argentina and Mexico to Colombia, Spain, Russia, France, Italy, Zambia, South Korea, and Portugal. We argue that School PB aligns well with Freire’s ideas on dialogue, participation, collaboration, creativity, student agency, and change. In this paper we focus on the experience of School PB in Arizona, not only because it was in Arizona where the first School PB process in the U.S. was designed and implemented, but also because it has been a place for continuous experimentation and innovation.

Intersections between education and health reforms in Brazil: when the "target population" is an active builder of the public policy

This article presents fragments of history about the intersections between Health and Education in Brazil and its connections to discussions concerning democracy ideals. The background argument is how an ethical posture in public policy consistent with the one proposed by Paulo Freire allows for population participation in a way that strengthens the commitment to democracy in public policy. Such ethical posture 1) considers social determinants of the phenomena that happens to an individual, and 2) requires constant effort to not fall for the tempting silencing of one's existence and full citizenship.

COVID-19 and Digital Learning in The Dominican Republic: Implications For Marginalized Communities

With COVID-19 placing a strain on its public institutions, the Dominican Republic is attempting to ensure a streamlined digital education process by extending Digital Republic, a past initiative that provides online frameworks and platforms for its students and teachers. However, already existing issues are exacerbating access to education for vulnerable communities. While past policies included special needs services, the following initiative has yet to provide information on access for disabled students. Low-income students face financial challenges to gain the resources necessary to thrive during remote learning. Likewise, migrants from Haiti and those of Haitian descent continue to be left out of the conversation. The following case study explores the country’s education system, how its policies benefit certain groups and negatively impact others. By conducting in-depth policy analysis and interviews with local officials, the study analyzes the impact of digital learning during the pandemic among vulnerable communities in the country.

I Was Once an Oppressor, But I Found the Strength Within to Free Myself

In this short reflective essay, I share how I underwent a metamorphosis during the COVID-19 pandemic. For the first time in my life, I chose to use my education and my life experiences as a historically marginalized individual of color to decolonize my pedagogy. Thanks to the scholarship of Ladson-Billings (1995), I was able to transform my pedagogy into one where the cultural and racial identities and lived experiences of my students are acknowledged and validated in our classroom, one where my students—even just for a short period—can experience what it feels like to not be bound by the shackles of society’s oppressors.

Education for Black Liberation

Popular education has played a central role in Pan-African liberation struggles historically and in the present moment. In the period following African independence, social movements that emerged around and through education in Africa were informed by and in dialogue with related decolonial movements of the Global South. However, the specific contributions of Pan-Africanist revolutionaries to the broader philosophy and praxis of education for liberation is often under-appreciated. This paper explores this impact through Paulo Freire’s political and intellectual engagement with Pan-Africanist popular education movements, radical intellectuals, and broader revolutionary struggles. In considering Freire’s work in dialogue and practice with African revolutionary thinkers, this paper shows that, while Freire shaped elements of liberation education in Africa, he was also deeply shaped and influenced by the historical conditions of the time and key African revolutionaries who were struggling towards similar objectives. Additionally, we explore the continued salience of Freirean educational praxis in contemporary Pan-Africanist social movements, through the example of a present day online pedagogical experiment, the Pan-African Activist Sunday School and Solidarity Collective.

Freire, dialogic feedback, and power issues

The centrality of feedback is undeniable in education. However, not all feedback effectively encourages learning or improves performance due to predicaments in feedback delivery and receptivity. Several studies suggest other ways where feedback is offered in a dialogic fashion instead of a monologic one. Nevertheless, few papers do so in the context of medical education, especially when the learning processes involve marginalized people such as disaster-affected patients. This paper draws on autoethnographic experiences of providing dialogic feedback for medical students using Paolo Freire's dialogue concepts. This feedback was given during reflective sessions in community-based medical education at post-disaster areas in Aceh, Indonesia. The findings show that Freire's dialogue concepts help assess dialogic feedback quality and offer insights into power relations between teachers and students. To achieve the aim of providing dialogic feedback --obtaining new understandings-- educators need to establish a more equal position in teacher-student relationships. In sum, the findings highlight the applicability of Freire's concept of dialogue in offering feedback for students especially when the training takes place in a context of marginalized people.

The ARt of Inequality: A Youth Social Justice Exhibition in Augmented Reality

The substantive development in the role of augmented reality (AR) technologies in public spaces provides new opportunities for digital arts and arts activism as a means of increasing awareness of critical social issues. However, because of the digital divide and dominant narratives in the museum, there is an existing racial and socioeconomic gap in (digital) art, activism education, and museum curation. In this paper we present a curriculum that aims to empower high-school-aged youth from minoritized backgrounds through art activism in museum spaces via the development and exhibition of augmented reality art pieces that address social justice issues relevant to youth interests and experiences.

O papel da Bibliografia das Publicações Indígenas do Brasil na reafirmação das identidades intelectuais ameríndias

O ensino superior brasileiro e a produção científica foram, historicamente, espaços destinados a uma elite branca privilegiada. Aos povos indígenas, bem como a mulheres e negros, foi-lhes negado, ao longo dos anos, o poder de participação e produção de um conhecimento considerado também legítimo. No entanto, uma nova corrente intelectual indígena decolonial surge para mostrar que há outras formas de saber válidas. Ao mesmo tempo em que se reafirmam enquanto indivíduos e como comunidade, eles contribuem para a difusão de uma pluralidade de ideias e interpretações de mundo. Deste modo, o principal foco deste artigo é de entender qual o papel da participação indígena na produção científica acadêmica e como recentes iniciativas – tal qual a Bibliografia das Publicações Indígenas do Brasil - contribuem para o resgate de sua autoestima e a sua afirmação em um meio excludente.

Applying Critical Discourse Analysis in the Classroom

In this conceptual article, we provide a guide for educators to use Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) in classrooms to: (1) critically examine their teaching and behavioral support practices, (2) guide future interactions with students and families, and (3) use with students to empower them to critically analyze texts, media, and society. We rely on the CDA frameworks provided by Rebecca Rogers (2011), James Paul Gee (1999), and Norman Fairclough (1989). CDA is a tool that can disrupt cycles of power and oppression in classrooms and schools; it gives us a way to make oppressive systems and the way they replicate visible, so we can intentionally interrogate and dismantle them rather than unintentionally reproduce them in educational spaces.

People, Policy, and Praxis

Freirean pedagogy in adult education programs that embrace an open dialectic can be responsive to situations where ambiguity in policy implementation results in discrimination and disenfranchisement. The case presented below comes from my experiences as an educator in a Freirean, Spanish-language, high school equivalency (HSE) program in New Jersey during significant national changes to HSE credentialing in 2014. It describes policy implementation in the local context within the relationships between governing institutions, service organizations, and the people policies are meant to govern. The case constructs a narrative for the relevant policy environments and actions at the time through the assemblage of primary sources, such as policy documents and internal organizational reports, as well as an analysis of 25 news reports and commentaries taken from 2013-2014. I argue that all policies, even those initiated at the national level, are ultimately enacted locally through the dialectic relationships between policy makers, administrators, program staff, and students at a variety of public and private organizations. I show how Freirean approaches to program design and operation respond to political, policy, and programmatic complexities to address discrimination and disenfranchisement. In conclusion, I discuss implications for educators seeking to adopt a Freirean framework into their own program design and implementation. These include the development of local praxis within an analysis of larger oppressive structures, thoughtful design and critical flexibility to work closely with students in program operation, and engagement in dialectic relationships with existing or potential collaborators.