Teachers As Cultural Workers

by Freire, Paulo; MacEdo, Donaldo; Koike, Dale; Oliveira, Alexandre

• ISBN13: 9780813323046
• ISBN10: 0813323045
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-11-27
• Publisher: Westview Pr

Summary

Upon its recent publication in Portuguese, Paulo Freire's newest book became an instant success. This English translation is sure to meet with similar acclaim. InTeachers as Cultural Workers,Freire speaks directly to teachers about the lessons learned from a lifetime of experience as an educator and social theorist. No other book so cogently explains the implications for classroom practice of Freire's latest ideas and the pathbreaking theories found inPedagogy of the Oppressedand other treatises.This book challenges all who teach to reflect critically on the meaning of the act of teaching as well as the meaning of learning. Freire shows why a teacher's success depends on a permanent commitment to learning and training, as part of an ongoing appraisal of classroom practice. By observing the curiosity of students and the manner through which students develop strategies for learning, the teacher is helped in discovering doubts, successes, and the teacher's mistakes. When teachers open themselves to recognize the different roads students take in order to learn, they will become involved in a continual reconstruction of their own paths of curiosity, opening the doors to habits of learning that will benefit everyone in the classroom.

Author Biography

Paulo Freire (1921-1997) was a world-renowned Brazilian education scholar. Perhaps the most influential thinker about education in the late twentieth century, Freire has been particularly popular with informal educators with his emphasis on dialogue and his concern for the oppressed. His legacy of commitment, love and hope to American educators can be found in the critical pedagogy which infuses hundreds of "grass roots" organizations, college classrooms, and most recently school reform efforts in major urban areas. Freire was a prolific writer and author of many books. His most important work was Pedagogy of the Oppressed in which he describes the oppressive mechanisms of a capitalist education.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix	(12)
Donaldo Macedo
Ana Maria Araujo Freire
Series Editors' Preface	xxi	(2)
Shirley R. Steinberg
Joe L. Kincheloe
Peter McLaren
Preface	xxiii
First Words: A Pedagogical Trap	1	(16)
First Letter: Reading the World Reading the Word	17	(10)
Second Letter: Don't Let the Fear of What Is Difficult Paralyze You	27	(6)
Third Letter: I Came into the Teacher Training Program Because I Had No Other Options	33	(6)
Fourth Letter: On the Indispensable Qualities of Progressive Teachers for Their Better Performance	39	(8)
Fifth Letter: The First Day of School	47	(8)
Sixth Letter: On the Relationship Between the Educator and the Learners	55	(8)
Seventh Letter: From Talking to Learners to Talking to Them and with Them; From Listening to Learners to Being Heard by Them	63	(6)
Eighth Letter: Cultural Identity and Education	69	(6)
Ninth Letter: Concrete Context Theoretical Context	75	(12)
Tenth Letter: Once More the Question of Discipline	87	(4)
Last Words: To Know and to Grow--Everything Yet to See	91	(6)
Index	97