Literacy learning transforms peasants’ self-perception in hours

Evidence

When an illiterate peasant participates in this sort of educational experience, he or she comes to a new awareness of self, has a new sense of dignity, and is stirred by a new hope. Time and again, peasants have expressed these discoveries in striking ways after a few hours of class: “I now realize I am a person, an educated person.” “We were blind, now our eyes have been opened.” “Before this, words meant nothing to me; now they speak to me and I can make them speak.” “Now we will no longer be a dead weight on the cooperative farm.” When this happens in the process of learning to read, men and women discover that they are creators of culture, and that all their work can be creative. “I work, and working I transform the world.” — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 69

Categorization

• CANDY: The peasants’ own testimonies — ‘words meant nothing to me; now they speak to me’ — are vivid, quotable observations of transformation.
• SEED: Could form the evidence base for an essay on what measurable outcomes problem-posing education actually produces.
• XREF: connects to: Freirean cultural circles originated as a literacy method for Brazilian peasants — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 621