Literacy Reading the Word and the World by Paulo Freire & Donaldo Macedo 1987; Introduction by Henry A. Goroux; Foreword by Ann Berthoff
Forward:
Helpful Links:
http://www.freire.org/component/easytagcloud/%20conscientization
Paulo Freire (1921–1997) - Conceptual Tools, Philosophy of Education, Criticism
http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1998/Freire-Paulo-1921-1997.htmlVocabulary
1. conscientization--The process of developing a critical awareness of one’s social reality through reflection and action. Action is fundamental because it is the process of changing the reality. Paulo Freire says that we all acquire social myths which have a dominant tendency, and so learning is a critical process which depends upon uncovering real problems and actual needs. http://www.freire.org/component/easytagcloud/%20conscientization
3. dialectic of theory and practice--there is a learning relationship between a theory and the practice of that theory. A theory leads to action or practice which then informs theory. It is a give and take. A theory has no justification if it cannot be used in a beneficial way.
4. culture circles--The concrete basis for Freire's dialogical system of education is the culture circle, in which students and coordinator together discuss generative themes that have significance within the context of students' lives. These themes, which are related to nature, culture, work, and relationships, are discovered through the cooperative research of educators and students. They express, in an open rather than propagandistic fashion, the principle contradictions that confront the students in their world. These themes are then represented in the form of codifications (usually visual representations) that are taken as the basis for dialogue within the circle. As students decode these representations, they recognize them as situations in which they themselves are involved as subjects. The process of critical consciousness formation is initiated when students learn to read the codifications in their situationality, rather than simply experiencing them, and this makes possible the intervention by students in society. As the culture circle comes to recognize the need for print literacy, the visual codifications are accompanied by words to which they correspond. Students learn to read these words in the process of reading the aspects of the world with which they are linked.
Read more: Paulo Freire (1921–1997) - Conceptual Tools, Philosophy of Education, Criticism - Students, Social, World, and Process - StateUniversity.com http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1998/Freire-Paulo-1921-1997.html#ixzz2pdsZpdTl
5. Knowing that (vs know-how)--a critical dimension of consciousness which moves us from instinctual,stimulus-response behavior to meaning making, to mediated activity, to making culture.
6. banking concept of education--The concept of education in which “knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing”.
6. codification--This is a way of gathering information in order to build up a picture (codify) around real situations and real people. Decodification is a process whereby the people in a group begin to identify with aspects of the situation until they feel themselves to be in the situation and so able to reflect critically upon its various aspects, thus gathering understanding. It is like a photographer bringing a picture into focus.
7. Conscientization--The process of developing a critical awareness of one’s social reality through reflection and action. Action is fundamental because it is the process of changing the reality. Paulo Freire says that we all acquire social myths which have a dominant tendency, and so learning is a critical process which depends upon uncovering real problems and actual needs.
Interesting Link concerning conscientization
http://commonaction.blogspot.com/2012/12/conscientization-in-my-life.html
Notes:
Metacognition--be aware of awareness and thinking about thinking, and interpreting our interpretations
"If education is to serve other than as an instrument of oppression, it must be conceived of as a 'pedagogy of knowing (pg. xiii).'"
"Nothing about society or language or culture or the human soul is simple: Wherever there are human beings, there is activity; and human act are processes, and processes are dialectical. Nothing simply unfolds, either in nature or in history: the recalcitrance of environments and structures of all sorts is necessary to growth and development, to change and transformation. That is something obvious and it takes a good deal of tramping before we can claim an understanding" (pg. xii).
"Teaching and learning are dialogic in character, and dialogic action depends on the awareness of oneself as knower, an attitude Freire calls conscientization (conscientizacao). This 'critical consciousness' is informed by a philosophically sound view of language and insprited by that unsentimental respect for human beings that only a sound philosophy of mind can assure" (pg. xiii).
Ann Berthoff believes that to use Freire's work we must first study his philosophy of language and learning and next reinvent our conferences, journal formats, and classrooms.
Freire's Philosophy of Language:
"'The act of learning to read and write has to start from a very comprehensive understanding of the act reading the world, something which human beings do before reading the words... Reading thei word and learning how to write the word so one can later read it are preceded by learning how to 'write the world, that is, having the experience of changing the world and of touching the world."(Paulo Freire as quoted in the foreword of Literacy Reading the Word and the World) pgs. xiii-xiv).
"Language is the means of making those meanings that we communicate.
People say and mean at the same time.
The capacity for language is innate, but needs a social setting to be realized.
Learners need to be empowered by what they are learning
Because we can name the world we can hold it in our mind, we can visualize it, conceive change and make the choices to bring about that change. Naming is transformative! Naming the world becomes a model for changing the world. Through language we develop a critical consciousness
Thinking, feeling, and action as ways we make sense of the world.
Recognition and reinvention are inherent parts in theory and practice.
Questions:
To remain alert to the significance of the distinctions PF thinks of them on threes: tradition/liberal-modernizing/prophetic;authoritarianism/somestication/mobilization; bourgeois-authoritarian-positivist/laissez faire/radically democratic; neutrality/manipulation or spontaneity/political praxis; and neutrality/manipulation or spontaneity/political praxis.
(Lectures are outmoded. They are from the middle ages and were originally a reading.)
Turn from problem solving to problem posing--How your theory and what your theory changes will best tell you what your theory is--The worth of an idea is the difference it will make.
Introduction: (Under Construction)
Chapter 1: The Importance of the Act of Reading
"In attempting to write about the importance of reading, I must say something about my preparation for being here today, something about the process of writing this book, which involved a critical understanding of the act of reading. Reading does not consist merely of decoding the written word or language; rather, it is preceded by and intertwined with knowledge of the world. language and reality are dynamically interconnected. The understanding attained by critical reading of a text implies perceiving the relationship between text and context" (Freire & Macedo, 1987).
This specks to many things: it speaks to language being the expression/creation/application of thought; it speaks to creating or activating background knowledge; it speaks to reading being active and interactive; it speaks to the connections a reader makes with the text.
(Close reading is most authentic when there is engagement and interest.Reading this text is not a chore but an adventure.)
In the process of naming we are making connections and through these connections we are making sense of t he world or reading the world.
For this reason I have always insisted that words used in organizing a literacy program come from what I call the 'word universe' of people who are learning, expressing, their actual language, their anxieties, fears, demand, and dreams. Words should be laden with the meaning of the people's existential experience, and not of the teacher's experience. Surveying the word universe this gives us the people's words, pregnant with the world, words from the people's reading of the world. We then give the words back to the people in what I call 'codifications,' pictures representing real situations. (pgs. 35-36)".
Until I use and understand these ideas and they become part of my world I am over using quotes for the book.
Chapter 2 Adult Literacy and Popular Libraries
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