Giroux on Freire
"Paulo was crucial in forecasting a number
of theoretical interventions including work in post colonial theory,
cultural studies, critical adult education, literacy and language
studies, and the primacy of politics in education. This is often
missed by his critics. Moreover, his was a social and theoretical
project, it was not simply about methodology or practice. Paulo's
work suggest at least three important interventions:
- He exemplified what it meant to be a broader
intellectual. Paulo was never home in one place. Paulo's gaze
around the questions of power and possibility cut across continents
and borders.
- He revitalized the relationship between theory
and practice as an act of politics and struggle for social justice.
- Paulo gave us a sense of what commitment was.
Paulo was a provocateur who gave his life over to struggling
for and with others, and made pedagogy the central defining
principal of how you take up questions of agency, power, and
politics.
Paulo was a great teacher, a model of humility
and inspiration.
. . . Many people have labeled me a Freirian
but that label is antithetical to everything Paulo represents.
Because he was always concerned about the relationship between
context, pedagogy, and politics. One didn't imitate Paulo, one
tried to use his work as theory rather than a method, and this
meant one had to be a producer of theory rather than one who simply
implements other's theories. Hence, I used his work along with
the work of others within a political project that was specific
to my own context, problems, and concerns. This also suggests
that rather than seeing critical pedagogy as one narrative, it
has to be seen as a panorama of narratives, many of whom appropriate
Freire in different ways."
Carlos Torres: " There is one thing that Paulo
has said over and over again, which is, 'You don't have to follow
me. You have to re-invent me.'"
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