Abstract
This chapter examines Paulo Freire’s concept of conscientizaçao and points to an understanding of critical awareness and the formation of social consciousness as both a historical phenomenon and a human social process connected to our communal capacities to become authors and social actors of our destinies. Darder describes how Freire’s conscientizaçao doesn’t occur automatically or naturally, nor should it be understood as a linear phenomenon. Instead, she delineates how Freire spoke of it as an emancipatory consciousness that arises through an on-going organic process of human engagement, which requires critical pedagogical interactions that nurture the dialectical relationship of human beings with the world. Finally, she adds that conscientizaçao entails a grounded appreciation for the dialectical tension that must be retained, between the empowerment of the individual and the democratic well-being of the larger communal sphere.
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Darder, A. (2020). Conscientizaçao. In: Macrine, S. (eds) Critical Pedagogy in Uncertain Times. Education, Politics and Public Life. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39808-8_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39808-8_4
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