Paulo Freire
The Man from Recife, Revised and Updated Second Edition
Summary
This latest edition of Paulo Freire: The Man from Recife is a captivating and refreshing take on Paulo Freire's timeless principles…Kirylo skillfully incorporates issues like neoliberalism, destructive tribalism, and religious sectarian nationalism in dialogue with Freire's transformative ideas, underscoring the continued relevance of Freire’s thought in addressing today's challenges. This book is much more than a simple compendium of historical and bibliographical information; it is a call to action, an inspiration for change, and a testament to the power of critical and transformative education.
—DÉBORA B. AGRA JUNKER, PhD, Associate Professor of Critical Pedagogies, Founder and Director of Cátedra Paulo Freire, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
James D. Kirylo has brilliantly revised his foundational text on Paulo Freire's life and work. This new edition is panoramic and marvelously readable, expanding our knowledge of the contexts from which Freire emerged to become a leading advocate for social justice in education and society.
—IRA SHOR, Co-author with Paulo Freire, A Pedagogy for Liberation
Reading Paulo Freire: The Man from Recife deeply fascinated me. Each chapter on relevant passages from Paulo Freire's life and his intellectual and educational work expresses a profound connection between Kirylo and the Brazilian thinker, leading us to a clear understanding of the reasons that has made Freire a reference of universal and timeless repercussion. I am impressed by the admiration, affection and seriousness that Kirylo shows in the characterization of Paulo Freire’s land, his country and hometown. The book's structure, with short chapters and fluid language, makes it a pleasant and captivating journey, which increases our appetite for tasting each page.
—LUCIMARA CRISTINA DE PAULA, State University of Ponta Grossa, Parana, Brazil
James D. Kirylo’s Paulo Freire: The Man From Recife provides a unique portrait of one of the most influential educationists of the 20th century. This second edition – with its thoughtful revisions to the style, substance, and structure of the text – makes what was already a key work in Freirean scholarship even more accessible and engaging. Kirylo shows, with great insight and clarity, how Freire’s ideas emerged from his personal, pedagogical, and political experiences. I recommend this book very highly for anyone seeking to gain a better understanding of Paulo Freire – the intellectual, the teacher, and the man.
—PETER ROBERTS, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cubierta
- Título
- Copyright
- Sobre el autor/el editor
- Sobre el libro
- Esta edición en formato eBook puede ser citada
- Contents
- Praise For The First Edition
- Foreword
- Foreword to the First Edition
- Preface Past the Centennial Year: Recollection and Gratitude
- Introduction
- Historical Context within a Land of Contrasts
- Part I The Birth of a Remarkable Life (1921–1942)
- Chapter 1. 724 Estrada do Encanamento
- Chapter 2. Early School Years
- Chapter 3. The Move to Jaboatão
- Chapter 4. A Turning Point
- Chapter 5. The Move Back to Recife, First Teaching Job, and Propelling Toward Life’s Work
- Part II The Permanent Move to Education (1943–1956)
- Chapter 6. Marriage, Children, and “You’re an Educator”
- Chapter 7. A Momentous Employment Invitation
- Chapter 8. A Watershed Moment
- Chapter 9. Superintendent of the Division of Education and Culture and Lessons Learned
- Part III Literacy Reform Campaign Movements and Forced into Exile (1956–1964)
- Chapter 10. Completing Doctoral Work and an Adult Education Focus
- Chapter 11. The Emergence of Cultural Circles
- Chapter 12. Overview of a Five Phase Literacy Process
- Chapter 13. A Remarkable Event in Angicos
- Chapter 14. Triggering Political Events, Jail Time, and the only Option of Exile
- Part IV Life in Exile (1964–1980)
- Chapter 15. A Short Stay in Bolivia and onto Chile
- Chapter 16. Cultural Circles in a Chilean Setting
- Chapter 17. Early Publications and Departing Chile
- Chapter 18. A Stop at Harvard as a Path to Geneva
- Chapter 19. Headquartered at the World Council of Churches
- Chapter 20. Historical Overview of Guinea–Bissau and the Need for a Literacy Campaign
- Chapter 21. The Guinea–Bissau Project and Beyond
- Chapter 22. Living a Borrowed Life and Lessons Learned
- Part V The Return Home and Post-Exile Life and Work (1980–1997)
- Chapter 23. A Period of Re-acclimation
- Chapter 24. A Sampling of Publications during the 1980s (Including Early Works About Paulo Freire)
- Chapter 25. The Formation of a New Political Party and Accepting a Secretary of Education Post
- Chapter 26. A Goal-focused Sense of Urgency as Secretary of Education
- Chapter 27. Traversing Through a Dark Night
- Chapter 28. Life Anew and More Publications
- Part VI Personality, Pastimes, and Last Days
- Chapter 29. A Glimpse into Paulo’s “Domestic” Life
- Chapter 30. A Level of Regrets
- Part VII Influences: An Overview
- Chapter 31. Drinking from Many Wells
- Chapter 32. Foundationally Grounded in a Faith Position Lens
- Chapter 33. Existentialism, Phenomenology, Personalism, Humanism, Liberalism, and Marxism
- Chapter 34. A Process Toward Coming Out of the Shadows
- Part VIII Freirean Themes
- Chapter 35. Tramp of the Obvious
- Chapter 36. Authenticity and Dialogue
- Chapter 37. Conscientização and Praxis
- Chapter 38. Banking Approach v. Problem-posing Approach
- Chapter 39. Love, Humility, and Hope
- Part IX Critical Pedagogy, Liberation Theology, and Legacy
- Chapter 40. “Father” of Critical Pedagogy
- Chapter 41. One of the Founders of Liberation Theology
- Chapter 42. The Man from Recife and Why He Matters
- Afterword A Perspective from Brazil
- Afterword for the First Edition Paulo Freire: Defending His Heritage to Remake the Earth
- Acknowledgments
- Appendix A. Illustrative Literacy Scenes
- Appendix B. Key Word List
- Appendix C. The Process of Writing Pedagogy of the Oppressed
- Appendix D. Voices: Leonardo Boff, Cynthia Brown, Fernando Cardenal, and Jonathan Kozol
- Appendix E. An Interview with Ana Maria (Nita) Araújo Freire
- Appendix F. A Brief Overview of Critical Theory
- Appendix G. Paulo Freire, Black Theology of Liberation, and Liberation Theology: A Conversation with James H. Cone
- Notes
- References
- Index
Praise for the First Edition
“If Paul Freire could read this book, he would certainly be happy with how James D. Kirylo has presented his thought, faithfully and respectfully recreating him without distortion.”
ANA MARIA ARAÚJO FREIRE
“James D. Kirylo’s insightful book is a great complement to Paulo Freire’s Letters to Cristina and Ana Maria Araújo Freire’s Paulo Freire: Uma História de Vida … Reading Kirylo’s book reminds me, once again, how I feel enormously blessed for having had the opportunity to work and collaborate with Paulo Freire so closely for many years.”
DONALDO MACEDO
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS BOSTON
“Paulo Freire has cultivated the ground for a long revolution, and James D. Kirylo’s outstanding new work has skillfully and with prescient insight illuminated this ground in ways few books on Freire have managed to accomplish … Kirylo’s book reminds us that while the path made by Paulo Freire was a singular path, it has, over the decades, formed an international hub where travelers worldwide can gather and find rest and replenishment in order to take up again the long walk towards revolution”
PETER MCLAREN
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES
“James D. Kirylo’s warmly written text, Paulo Freire: The Man from Recife, offers readers a remarkable insight into the extraordinary life of Paulo Freire.”
LOIS MCFADYEN CHRISTENSEN
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CRITICAL PEDAGOGY
“As a whole, this book accomplishes three important tasks. First, it successfully brings together dozens of diverse writings by and about Freire into one text, allowing readers (new and old to Freire) to get a sense for the breadth of his work … .Second, the reader also gets a good sense for the rhythm of Freire’s life, how much he travelled both before and after the dictatorship. From his trips to basically every state in Brazil prior to exile, to his time in Chile, Cambridge, Geneva, and Africa while abroad, it is clear that Freire’s educational approach did not develop in a geographical vacuum—and Kirylo helps us understand the different contexts in which this approach did develop. Third, this book, more than any other I have read, really gives readers a sense for how important religion and theology were to Freire’s thought and life trajectory.”
REBECCA TARLAU
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
EDUCATION REVIEW
“This book celebrates the birth, life, and legacy of the most important philosopher/theorist/practitioner of education in the twentieth century, our friend and mentor, Paulo Freire. James has recorded a detailed account of this man, his history, his story, his loves, and his words, and I hope that it invigorates readers to demand more scholarship of this level, particularly in English, for students and teachers. Paulo’s beloved, Nita, has written a comprehensive biography of Paulo, and yet, in these days of financial cutbacks and lack of attention to philosophy and education, it is very difficult to have the book translated. For now, we rely on the prose and research James has gifted to us.”
SHIRLEY R. STEINBERG
UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY
Foreword
The second edition of Paulo Freire: The Man from Recife provides a restructured and updated biography of Paulo Freire, considered as one of the most important educators in 20th century. Paulo Freire internationally established himself as an important voice in education with the publication of Educação com Prática da Liberdade, published in 1967 (first English translation as Education as the Practice of Liberty in 1973), two articles published in the journal Harvard Educational Review in 1970 (The Adult Literacy Process as Cultural Action for Freedom and Cultural Action and Conscientization), and, especially, with the publication of Pedagogy of the Oppressed (first published in English) also in 1970. These publications came in the wake of his work in adult literacy in Brazil—work which led to his exile from Brazil following the military coup d’etat in 1964—and were contemporaneous with and after completion of his work in Chile.1
Several biographies of Paulo Freire are available in Portuguese, one being an extensive 655-page Paulo Freire volume with a large number of photographs and reproductions of original documents penned by Paulo Freire’s widow ‘Nita’ Freire (Paulo Freire: Uma História de Vida).2 James D. Kirylo, in his own words, has written a ‘celebratory chronology’ of Paulo Freire’s life and work, aimed predominantly for newcomers to Paulo Freire, but also for those already familiar with his work. With Paulo Freire: The Man from Recife, Kirylo admirably succeeds in providing a much-needed English-language biography of Paulo Freire including explications of Paulo Freire’s significance in the development of critical pedagogy and liberation theology.
The strength of ‘The Man from Recife’ resides in the fact that it not only provides a chronology of Paulo Freire’s life and work but also the context for his work. Paulo Freire published over a period of 38 years (not counting works published posthumously) and, therefore, geographical, socio-political, and economical circumstances changed over this period. Thus, in order to understand Paulo Freire’s oeuvre, one needs to know the context during which each of his books were written; a book is not generated in isolation but is entangled in a web of ever-changing circumstances that leaves an imprint on the author and, therefore, is also reflected in the book.
In addition, Kirylo reminds us of the triad that forms a base line for us to understand Paulo Freire: his Brazilianess; being a Pernambucano—coming from the state of Pernambuco in the impoverished Northeast of Brazil; and being from Recife, the capital city of Pernambuco where he lived with his family until the exile from Brazil. Freire stressed, during a dialogue with Sérgio Guimarães, the indelible mark Recife left on him and referred to it as recificidade; the years in exile provoked in him an intense longing for his hometown, that he expressed as ‘saudade do Recife.’3 Paulo Freire articulates the importance of his recificidade in his poem to Recife—Recife Sempre—written in 1969 while in exile in Chile (a version of the poem was first published in Freire and Guimarães, 1987; a second version was published in Freire and Guimarães, 2008.4 The following quote is from a partial English translation of the second version of the poem—Recife Always:
[…]
They don’t understand me
If they don’t understand you
What I think
What I say
What I write
What I do
Everything is marked by you
Recife, my city
I love you so much, I love you so much. 5
‘Nita’ Freire added
Only those who were born in the culture of the city of Recife, who saw the birth of thousands of men and women living a hard life and a hard destiny, can think as Paulo thought. […] Paulo’s reading of the world, and thus coherently his theoretical work, is marked by this fact: he was a man from Recife.6
‘The Man from Recife,’ the title of Kirylo’s Paulo Freire biography, refers to this tight connection between Paulo Freire and Recife and highlights the importance of recificidade for
Paulo Freire as a person and for his work.
Within the chronological time line of Paulo Freire’s life, Kirylo also interweaves works published by Paulo Freire and with it he provides a flavor of Paulo Freire’s evolving oeuvre. One needs to keep in mind, however, that there are still books by Paulo Freire that are not yet translated from the original Portuguese (and Spanish) into English. These books include, for example, the first “talking books” starting with Freire and Guimarães 1982 work.7 For the benefit of the English-speaking reader it is hoped that more of the works of Paulo Freire will be available in English (soon).
Students, very often, are introduced to Paulo Freire through Pedagogy of the Oppressed—certainly a very important and his best-known book—as if it is the only book by Paulo Freire. Based on Kirylo’s Paulo Freire biography it becomes clear that students and all others interested in understanding Paulo Freire and his work need to go beyond Pedagogy of the Oppressed by reading other books he published since 1970. According to Gadotti, on the importance of reading beyond Pedagogy of the Oppressed for an understanding of Paulo Freire’s work, Paulo Freire himself stated
[…] there are doctoral students who write their Ph.D. thesis without reading all my books […] without making a global analysis.8
Kirylo addresses Paulo Freire’s continuing relevance and legacy in the final chapter of this book, making clear that Freire remains contemporarily relevant in a world that is rapidly changing9 and this relevance is also reflected in the large number of current publications dealing with Paulo Freire’s educational philosophy, including application of Freire’s pedagogical approach in classrooms worldwide. With respect to Paulo Freire’s relevance during present times, Stanistreet posits:
Details
- Pages
- XXVIII, 360
- Publication Year
- 2024
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9781636678795
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9781636678801
- ISBN (Hardcover)
- 9781636678818
- ISBN (Softcover)
- 9781433199677
- DOI
- 10.3726/b21688
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2024 (August)
- Keywords
- Critical Pedagogy Education liberation theology social sciences social justice James D. Kirylo The Man from Recife Paulo Freire Philosophy
- Published
- New York, Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, Oxford, 2024. XXVIII, 360 pp., 25 b/w ill.
