Paulo Freire was born in 1921 in Recife, Brazil. In 1947 he began work with adult illiterates in North-East Brazil and eventually as time passed created a method of work with which the word conscientization has been associated. Friere believed that if people missed out on education they had a decreased chance of being socially mobile. He wanted to create a system of learning in which he believed everyone should be educated equally. Until 1964 he was the Professor of History and Philosophy of Education in the University of Recife. In the 1960s he was involved with a popular education movement to deal with massive illiteracy problems that lingered within Brazil. From 1962 there were widespread experiments in which his method was put to practice, therefore, as a result, the education movement was extended under the patronage of the federal government. In 1963-4, Friere's method appeared to be a massive success, as there were courses set up for people in all Brazilian states and a plan was drawn up for the establishment of 2000 cultural circles to reach 2,000,000 illiterates.
Nevertheless, Freire was imprisoned following the 1964 coup d’etat for what the new regime considered to be subversive and left-wing elements in his teaching. He next appeared in exile in Chile where his method was used. During the 1970's he advocated his belief on education reform and initiated popular education activities with a range of international groups. Paulo Freire was able to return to Brazil by 1979. Freire was not reluctant in continuing his work which had been the cause of his exile. He joined the Workers’ Party in Sao Paulo and headed up its adult literacy project for six years. When the party took control of Sao Paulo municipality following elections in 1988, Paulo Freire was appointed as Sao Paulo’s Secretary of Education.
Freire died in 1997.
"I'm very sad that I have lost my father. Now all I have is brothers and sisters".
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