Popular culture and conscientization: dialogues between Paulo Freire and the movements of popular culture

Abstract

This projects objective is to do a comparative study between the concepts of popular culture and conscientization in Paulo Freire (1921-1997) and political and educational perspectives of the movements of popular culture developed from 1960 to 1964. This is a theoretical research aimed at examining the philosophical foundations of these concepts and their aplication by Paulo Freire and other educators from movements of popular culture, as well as the influences and historical implications of political alternatives inherent in these concepts which explicitate more clearly the role played by Freire and other educators in the fundamentation of popular education. The analyzed materials consist of works on education, particularly from Freire, plus articles and documents from the period produced by members of movements of popular culture that analyze popular culture and conscientization. The methodology comprises four steps of structural analysis of this material, i.e, the analysis of the historical context, political relations between the movements, the interpretation of the nexus between popular culture and conscientization, and approaches found in teaching materials in order to systematically present caracteristics of the relation between these concepts that can elucidate their meaning in discussions on the pedagogical perspectives of Freire and these movements.