Art & Science: Talk by Gerald Faschingeder
Practising anti-oppressive
education
Paulo Freire was a prominent popular educator in Brazil as well as the founder of
a pedagogy of liberation and a mass movement for adult literacy.
His educational approach, based
on raising consciousness (Conscientização), links action to reflection. This lecture analyses the contribution of Freire’s
position and world-view for current development studies and education. To do so, research and educational projects of the
Paulo Freire Center will be briefly presented, e.g. the project ‘Systematization of Agroecological Learning Experiences’ (SALE),
that took place 2015–2018 in Cuba and Mexico/Chiapas. The following arguments will be discussed in the group: Reading the
world is a critical undertaking to understand the reality based on dialogue, dialectics and a contextualized and problem-oriented
approach. Writing the world is acting in a world structured by domination and oppression which calls for a non-dualistic approach
that links agency and structure and ethics and rationality in an attempt of overall democratization. Finally there will be
an outlook to case studies which aim at contextualizing Freire’s approach for Vienna in the 21st century.
Biography
Mag. Dr. phil. Gerald Faschingeder studied Economic and Social History and German Philology at the University of Vienna.
Since 2004, as director of the Paulo Freire Center, he has been dedicating himself to the creation of a space for reflection
on development policy work. He teaches at the Department of Development Studies at the University of Vienna. His research
topics are: culture, religion, and education in the context of international development.