Freire at the Beach: remembering Paulo in the bright days of summer

abstract

Paulo Freire's work in literacy and conscientisation brought new depth and meaning to emancipatory and participatory pedagogy. In recent years Freire was concerned he would not be around for the beginning of the twenty‐first century. His death is a loss to adult education but all signs suggest there will be a continuing interest in his work. Many people had personal contact with Freire. Some acted like groupies trailing a rock star. Others had misgivings about his guru status. A few thought his work resembled that of Sylvia Ashton‐Wamer in New Zealand. Moreover, it was not easy to “know” Freire and, in one stream of thought, he was a chameleon that changed spots to suit the occasion and often took refuge in lofty generalisations. The notion that there was no “real” Freire, only a construct, is not welcomed by Marxist friends. Thus far there is little critique of his work. The author of this article more or less spent a summer with and interviewed Freire. In this article he asks—who was Freire? The answer consists of details concerning his biography, recollections of the summer of 1984, an interview in which he speaks in his own words and an analysis of what few people ever witnessed—a cultural circle in action.