A countercolonial pedagogical tool

Notes on Paulo Freire’s educational theory

Authors

  • Walace Rodrigues

Abstract

A countercolonial tool. Notes on Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy —* With this paper, we seek
to understand how the educational theories of Paulo Freire (1921-1997) are not only relevant to
thinking about a liberating, critical and humanist education, but that they also stand as true
countercolonial theories. Unlike post-colonialism and decolonialism, countercolonialism goes
against stereotypes, racism, discrimination and prejudices originating from the colonial era
and which are still strong in our Brazilian social structure. This article is based on a bibliographical
research of a qualitative-exploratory nature to achieve our objective. The results of
this text reveal that Freire’s theories clash with the structural precepts of colonialism in Brazil,
revealing an education that is not only political, but also ethical and humanist that can also
critically fight against the current forms of domination of any imperialist hegemonic powers.

Published

2025-05-19