The Importance of Paulo Freire to Communication for Development and Social Change

Abstract

Paulo Freire (1921–1997) was the father of critical pedagogy, popular education, and participatory action research (PAR), as well as a basic reference of liberation theology and of Latin American critical theory and a precursor of the epistemologies of the south. His main work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, marked a before and after in the fields of education, research, and communication, initially in Latin America and later on spreading to other regions both North and South. Particularly in the case of development communication and communication for social change, Freire’s work had a definitive impact. As these disciplines were configuring into fields of thought and practice during the second half of the twentieth century, these currents were both fed and challenged by Freire’s understanding of praxis. Freirean-based participatory action research became the basis of what we know today as participatory development communication (PDC), which ended up becoming, toward the end of the 1980s, a common ground between development communication and communication for social change. However, as PDC evolved, its practice was still – and is still – challenged by Freirean concepts. Currently, the field of Communication for Development and Social Change needs to continue reaching out to Freire’s teachings, particularly to his epistemological and ontological framework based on his Pedagogy of the Oppressed.