Introduction

This chapter summarises the trajectory of one of education’s key twentieth century thinkers: Paulo Freire. It starts by explaining how the historical context of Paulo Freire’s upbringing helped him to develop revolutionary ideas for transforming education into a central element for the oppressed in society to achieve true freedom. Then, it recounts the history of the Angicos experiment, one of the most important experiences in popular education that occurred in South America during the 1960s, which paved the way for Freire’s ideas to gain national and global recognition. After the publication of the Pedagogy of the Oppressed in the early 1970s, this ‘pilgrim’ of education achieved further international acknowledgment and travelled the world to propagate the idea of democratic and liberating education. The introduction also delves into Freire’s antimethod of education and concludes by explaining how the pedagogy of letters is employed in this book.