To Freire or not to Freire: Educational freedom and the populist right‐wing ‘Escola sem Partido’ movement in Brazil

Abstract

This article addresses key topics of academic freedom and critical pedagogy during a time of rightwing populist politics. The rise of the far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro to Brazil's presidency in 2019 was accompanied by a vow to eradicate any vestige of the ideas of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire from the country's schools. Bolsonaro's campaign was supported by ultra-conservative groups that have as their core mission a traditional Christian and anti-Communist educational agenda. At the forefront of these groups is the influential and conspicuous 'Escola sem Partido' (ESP) movement that has forcefully campaigned against Freire's critical pedagogy across the country and promoted physical and online abuse of teachers since 2014. This article asks how Freire's philosophies can be an ally in the struggle for democratic education in the current political climate in Brazil. It employs a method of dialogical narrative to bring Freire's theories and critical methodology to life and test their potency against the ESP educational philosophies. It initially employs Freire's core ideas to examine the ESP policies and parliamentary bills. In the second part, it analyses documents and online content produced by civil society resistance to ESP pressures. The findings show the vitality of Freire's pedagogical philosophy to empower oppressed communities in their demands for quality education. The narrative concludes by demonstrating the vital role of the critical consciousness process and of Freire's pedagogy of freedom to support ongoing struggles by teachers and communities to block ESP attempts to abolish critical thinking in Brazilian public education.

A dialogic and democratic journey throughout editing a (very) special journal issue

“…In such a turmoil, while Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy proposals are still highly appraised and referred to by several reputable academic researchers all over the world, in Brazil, his work and ideas have been counterposed, "canceled," negated, and disregarded in the last four years by supporters of a movement entitled "escola sem partido" -usually translated as "nonpartisan schools" (see Knijnik, 2021). Roughly speaking, it's a conservative movement supported by people who are driven by the concept of a "neutral" type of education -as if language, discourse (and, therefore, any sociocultural artifacts and events) could ever be non-ideological.…”

Navigating Critical Language Education at the Crossroads of Neonationalism and Neoliberalism: The Role of Border Talk

“…As the recounting of the interaction circulates, different points of relevance come to the fore-culminating in moral panic over the promotion of sex by teachers, established in the "Gay Kit" fake news episode and other narratives (Knijnik, 2021). Parental fear and anger acts to place securitizing pressure on Lucas:…”

Critical Chinese as an Additional Language education in Australia: A journey to voices, courage and hope

“…If having a voice and words to name the world is the preliminary step of conscientização , Austin appeared to have moved into the next phase of his critical consciousness—enhancing liberation as a community member (Knijnik, 2020; Knijnik & Hunter, 2020). He started to realise restrictions blocking his memorisation, deployed the knowledge and experiences he had with pronunciation learning, and autonomously took up the social responsibility of suggesting the use of a workbook for a more desired outcome (Freire, 2000).…”

“…It was clear that the students’ journey towards autonomy was not an individual one; on the contrary, as a true autonomous education, it was a collective movement, where social awareness was associated with community empowerment and action (Knijnik, 2020). It was through their courage that the intercultural interaction and all associated experience turned into a powerful means for developing autonomous students (Freire, 2000).…”