What is Popular Education? Concept and practical applications

The philosophy and work of the Brazilian Paulo Freire have left a very extensive mark both in pedagogy and in the social sciences because they have allowed the establishment of dialogues and reflections on the development of educational practice in different contexts, especially in America Latina.

Next We will describe in an introductory way one of the key concepts of his work: Popular Education.

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education beyond school

The background of the pedagogy They can be traced back to the early stages of Western philosophical thought. However, the school and education as institutions whose objective is the socialization of the youngest is mainly based on the values ​​of modern times.

In Latin America, modern educational institutions and practices were consolidated at the end of the 19th century along with other systems. economic and political that had many consequences, some of them conflictive and even painful for populations and groups oppressed.

From there, different strategies were proposed, among which were the school and public education. But his response was soon insufficient, with which other alternatives were also developed in the field of social sciences, which to a large extent they were driven from the thought of the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire.

What is Popular Education?

Popular Education is a current of thought and action, that is, a theoretical and methodological orientation within the area of ​​social sciences (although its strongest application has been in pedagogy and social and community work), which has been very important for the development of programs for the sector "popular".

The word "popular" arises from the opposition between "the popular" and "the official", where "the popular" refers to a practice or thought that is opposed to the official one. For its part, "official" is a practice or thought that is accepted by a majority, although it has generally been imposed and not agreed upon.

In more practical terms, the concept of Popular Education has been useful to resist the dominant models, not only educational but also political and social.

In this sense, it is a practice that seeks to create fairer and more humane societies in defense of human rights, identities, gender, the environment, (among others phenomena that express social problems), trying to modify the role of the actors who are little considered or who are normally considered as passive in the models officers.

Where does it come from? some background

Popular Education is nourished by cultural and community theories and is characterized by being a comprehensive proposal with political and ethical commitments. It is based on participation, dialogue and recognition of different knowledge during the educational practice, which is understood not only to occur within the school, but also in different spaces.

It is developed from the philosophy and proposals of Paulo Freire, who had made a long tour of places in Latin America, whose main characteristic was political oppression.

Freire had been linked to different movements and participatory organizations and from there he became interested in systematizing some of his experiences. He had recognized the need to strengthen social actors, and to promote participatory environments and mentality changes through cultural and social production.

Some of these organizational projects are, for example, the Recife Popular Culture Movement where Freire coordinated the Adult Reeducation project. Likewise, the current of Popular Education is influenced by different social and political phenomena that gave rise to the development of theories such as liberation theology, the theory of marginality or popular promotion, especially in the decade of the 60's.

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Education as a practice of freedom

The intention of Popular Education is to develop strategies to strengthen and preserve the community; more specifically the communication and political organization of historically oppressed popular sectors (Understanding that these strategies should not be imposed, as had traditionally happened in the territory Latin American).

In other words, understands pedagogy as a communicative action that has effects on the construction of the person and the collective.

From there, Popular Education reflects on the role of the educator and allows going beyond the position of authority or conceiving him as the only bearer of valid knowledge; rather, it understands the educator as a mediator in the educational space.

This allows us to consider the contradictions that the educational practice itself generates in the educator, who constantly sees the need to decide between opening up to diversity or using the logic of imposition.

For this current, education is not a purely mechanical process, but rather a process that must take into account the subject of education, that is, its culture, its knowledge, its history, its expectations and its possibilities to project a future. In other words, it seeks to recognize the other as a subject of knowledge, and not as a passive subject.

One of the problems that Popular Education currently faces is that it has often been equated with training, projects or programs developed by NGOs but which once again leave the social actors as passive. That's why, It has been a project in constant construction and debate and has inspired numerous social movements., not only in Latin America but around the world.

Related works

Other very popular works by Paulo Freire and that are related in an important way to Popular Education are the Pedagogy of outrage, Pedagogy of dialogue and conflict, Politics and education, popular culture, popular education, Cultural action for freedom and other writings; and perhaps the two most famous are the Pedagogy of the oppressed and Education as a practice of freedom.