Towards a freirian pedagogy in the contemporary world

Abstract

This paper offers a re-reading of Paulo Freire’s pedagogy in light of the cultural, social, and economic transformations that characterize the contemporary world. Starting from Freire’s concept of the “fear of freedom,” the essay examines the relationship between education, autonomy, and responsibility, placing critical pedagogy in dialogue with other traditions of thought—from Gramsci to Socratic maieutics, as well as twentieth-century and contemporary pedagogical reflections. The central hypothesis is that, even in formally democratic societies, education today risks being reduced to a form of training merely functional to market logics, thereby losing its emancipatory function. In this context, oppression no longer manifests primarily as the deprivation of rights, but rather as the internalization of homogenizing cultural models and as an inability to exercise genuine critical autonomy. Through an analysis of the concepts of dialogue, praxis, maieutics, and “opacity,” the paper argues for the necessity of a non-transmissive form of education oriented toward conscientization and the active participation of learners. Freire’s pedagogy is thus interpreted as a still fertile framework for rethinking the role of the school as a public space for the formation of the subject and the exercise of democratic citizenship.