Presence of Mind in the Process of Learning and Knowing: A Dialogue with Paulo Freire

Abstract

Paulo Freire has been the most widely recognized and influential theorist and educator of critical pedagogy. He is perhaps best known for his literacy work in the decolonization process in a number of countries in South America and Africa, and for his first book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, published in 1970. While the theoretical grounding and implications of Freire's practices are profound, at the foundation of such work is the conviction that a critical, multicultural democracy should be the driving force of the struggle for freedom. F or Freire, conscientization, a sense of history, praxis, and dialogue are central to such a struggle. Conscientization (i.e., critical consciousness, or what I refer to as "presence of mind") is the ability to analyze, problematize (pose questions), and affect the sociopolitical, economic, and cultural realities that shape our lives. Such a level of consciousness, according to Freire, requires that people place themselves in history, the assumption being that we are never independent of the social and historical forces that surround us. That is, we all inherit beliefs, values, and thus ideologies that need to be critically Pepi Leistyna is an understood and transformed if necessary. For Freire, assistant professor in this process of transformation requires praxis and Applied Linguistics dialogue. Praxis refers to the ongoing relationship Graduate Studies at the between theoretical understanding and critique of University of society and action that seeks to transform individuals Massachusetts, Boston. and their environments. Arguing that people cannot