Education and democracy

This book examines critically the ideas and performance of Paulo Freire as secretary of education in Brazil in the early 1990s, during the socialist democratic administration of the Workers’ Party in São Paulo. With an emphasis on theory, the authors discuss the relationships between the state and social movements as well as the relationships between teachers and curriculum reform. In so doing, they thoroughly examine the intersection of politics and education in educational reform in one of the major urban centers of Latin America.A central focus of the book is the project of interdisciplinarity in teachers training—an essential principle of the Freirean proposal. By concentrating on classrooms, schools, and teachers and by use of a detailed empirical analysis, this book constitutes an assessment of an original, far-reaching, and radical process of educational reform. The foundations and methodologies of the São Paulo experience can be implemented in different international contexts. The authors show how students and teachers were engaged in the process of curriculum and governance reform and what kind of political awareness emerged in schools and communities experiencing radical educational reform.