Description
Book SynopsisThis landmark collection of essays by Third World activists highlights two major world changes which, they argue, have been neglected by Freire and his many followers: the Third World grass-roots cultural resistance to economic globalization, and the ecological crisis.
One source of the activist-authors'' criticisms of Freire''s pedagogy is rooted in their attempts to combine consciousness raising with literacy programs in such diverse cultural settings as Bolivia, Peru, India, Southern Mexico, and Cambodia, where they discovered that Freire''s pedagogy is based on western assumptions that undermine indigenous knowledge systems. Equally important, these authors make the case in various ways that a major limitation with Freire''s ideas, and which is reproduced in the writings of his followers, is that he did not recognize the cultural implications of the world''s ecological crisis.
Several essays in the collection focus directly on how the cultural assumptions Freire took
Trade Review"The whole book offers a timely challenge to any northern educator who assumes that their work is liberating and giving voice to the oppressed anywhere....the book is a breath of fresh air....it should appeal both to the academic and the practitioner reader, with its range of contributions from practical accounts to theoretical speculation."—The Developmental Education Journal
"...this book's various contributions help to enhance Bower's call for a more central relationship to 'intergenerational knowledge and his Afterward presents a cogent summary of the many points raised in his latest books that will be useful for those who want to grasp Bower's Ecojustice platform."—TCRecord
Table of ContentsContents: Preface. C.A. Bowers, Introduction. G. Esteva, D.L. Stuchul, M.S. Prakash, From a Pedagogy for Liberation to Liberation From Pedagogy. G.R. Vasquez, Nurturance in the Andes. B.L.S. Bejarano, Who Are the Oppressed? G. Terán, Vernacular Education for Cultural Regeneration: An Alternative to Paulo Freire's Vision of Emancipation. Siddhartha, From Conscientization to Interbeing: A Personal Journey. P. Robinson, Whose Oppression Is This? The Cultivation of Compassionate Action in Dissolving the Dualistic Barrier. D. Rasmussen, Cease to Do Evil, Then Learn to Do Good (A Pedagogy for the Oppressor). C.A. Bowers, How the Ideas of Paulo Freire Contribute to the Cultural Roots of the Ecological Crisis. C.A. Bowers, Afterword.
