Author: Sérgio Haddad
Ação Educativo, Brazil

Edition: Volume 61, Number 3, November 2021

Introduction: Paulo Freire spent over ten years in exile from his native country. His letters are full of reflections and advice to modern readers and were a way to share his ideas about the unity between theory and practice. This is why we have invited readers to contribute ‘letters to a teacher’: not to emulate one of Freire’s last publications, Teachers as Cultural Workers: Letters to Those Who Dare Teach, but to help bring his thinking to life.

The first of these is by Sergio Haddad who has led the Sao Paulo NGO Acao Activo for many years and played a leading and inspiring role in Latin American and wider international popular education. He worked alongside Freire and is one of, if not the, leading Brazilian authorities on his work. He uses his letter to say that Paulo Freire’s voice is a necessary one for today. Haddad reviews his life and concludes that Paulo’s contribution was primarily based on dialogue. ‘Effective, critical, respectful dialogue was at the centre of his pedagogical thinking’ Haddad concludes, in a masterful summarising of why Freire’s words are important right now, at this time when repression, inequality and poverty are evident everywhere. In short, we need Paulo Freire because we need social transformation in a damaged and threatened world.

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 61:3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.