Literacy Campaigns and Pedagogy of Paulo Freire : A Comparative View on Literacy
Campaigns in Brazil, Nicaragua, Tanzania, and Gunea Bissau
著者 Kubota Kenichi
journal or
publication title
情報研究 : 関西大学総合情報学部紀要
volume 3
page range 67‑83
year 1996‑01‑22
URL http://hdl.handle.net/10112/1001
Literacy Campaigns and Pedagogy of Paulo Freire:
A Comparative View on Literacy Campaigns in Brazil, Nicaragua, Tanzania, and Gunea Bissau
Kenichi Kubota
Abstract
The ideology of adult literacy has been evolving along with the changes in the concept of development over the years. During 1970s, Paulo Freire advocated the concept of "critical litera- cy" as opposed to that of "functional literacy." His writings are filled with criticism of traditional banking and extension education methods used to preserve privilege. They were also imposed by revolutionaries to coerce people into believing in their leadership. An alternative to banking e- ducation, according to Freire, is dialogical education which responds to problems of emergent consciousness. Four countries, such as Brazil, Nicaragua, Tanzania, and Guinea Bissau, carried our adult literacy campaigns, and are reviewed in relation to Freire's pedagogy. Reflecting on the literacy practices in four different countries, it has been recognized that the process of practical implementation of Freire's theory presents a variety of difficulties depending on many factors a- part from political orientation, such as socio-economic context, and human as well as material re- sources.
Introduction
The ideology of adult literacy has been evolving along with the changes in the concept of development over the years. Originally, literacy meant simply an ability to read and write. The World Conference of Ministers of Education on the Eradication of Illiteracy, sponsored by Unesco, provided the new concept of "functional literacy" as literacy to be offered to select eco- nomic groups and directly integrated it with their world of work (Unesco, 1965). Then, the International Symposium on Literacy, held in Persepolis,
Iranin 1975, proclaimed the ideological shift from "functional literacy" to "critical literacy," which meant the tool for creating "critical awareness" that enables the new literate to challenge the previously sacrosanct positions (Bataille, 1976).
Paulo Freire is recognized as a world-famous educationist advocating the concept of "criti- cal literacy." During the seventies, Freire's educational theory had a wide influence in the whole Western world inspiring many adult educators. However, governments had different reactions
to-wards his theory since his pedagogy was sometimes viewed as radical and anti-Statist (Bhola, 1989). First of all, I will review Freire's pedagogy and his methods in relation to development the- ories in this paper. Second, I will investigate literacy practices in four countries in order to under- stand how Freire's theory was implemented and assessed. Finally, I will analyze the literacy prac- tices by comparing similarities and differences from a variety of aspects and draw conclusions.
Development theories and literacy campaigns
The concept of development has been changing over the years. During the 1950s and 1960s, development policy paid more attention to the economic aspect of development, stressing technological advancement. In the 1970s and 1980s, the development policies shifted to focus on social well-being, considering environment and basic human needs (Fagerlind & Shaha, 1989).
Paulston (1977) categorizes the development theories into two paradigms: equilibrium and con- flict paradigms. The equilibrium paradigm is intimately related to capitalism and the moderniza- tion perspective, while the conflict paradigm views capitalism negatively as the principal genera- tor of macro-economic outcomes accompanied by widespread inequality and injustice.
The equilibrium paradigm.
The equilibrium paradigm involves functionalist, human capital and modernization ap-
proaches. The equilibrium paradigm generally presents a society as a system whose interrelated
and interdependent components interact within its boundary line in order to maintain a society by
moving toward a state of equilibrium. The equilibrium paradigm views development as a conse-
quence of how well the parts of the system fit together. The process of change is understood as a process of tension reduction. This paradigm inevitably accepts some inequality in a society and may see it as a necessary condition to maintain normative order (La Belle, 1986). The attainment of rewards of power and privilege, for instance, is typically viewed as a function of the degree to which people are able to contribute in accord with their motivation and capability (Paulston, 1977).
The equilibrium approach explains that literacy education infuses the modem concept into people as the social dynamic of development processes. According to this approach, a person who has acquired modem values and behavior can participate in economic development activi- ties. "Functional literacy," associated with this paradigm, helps individuals play their role as eco- nomically productive citizens in the existing socioeconomic structure. This framework is appro- priate to the human capital program because it emphasizes the contribution of education to stabil- ity and adoption, characteristic of, for instance, long standing capitalist societies. Adult literacy in this framework is traditionally tied to technical assistance and short course or activities to ex- change economic viability. The teacher retains authority and the task is to deliver information and skills which foster more effective and efficient production and consumption (La Belle, 1986).
The cont1ict paradi@l
The conflict paradigm sees goal attainment by one group as inversely related to goal attain- ment by another group. In other words, while one group attains a goal, the other group loses their goal because the two groups goals' are incompatible with each other. Structural incompati- bilities, power differentials and the pursuit of incompatible goals inevitably generates conflicts as groups attempt to improve their status and promote their own interests. The anticipated result typically leads to some changes in the power balance of a society. This paradigm involves Marxist theories, dependency theory and liberation theory. The goal is more explicitly directed toward equitable distribution of wealth, and the means involve greater access to and greater par- ticipation in decision making. The rhetoric underlying the conflict paradigm is group oriented, decentralized, highly participatory and intended to raise critical consciousness about roles and
s-
tatus in a particular social and historical context (La Belle, 1987).Paulo Freire, a radical educationist of liberation theory, explains that people in underdevel- oped societies are oppressed by the people who have the power and control economic resources.
In order to overcome this situation, the oppressed people should be aware of their condition.
According to Freire, liberation is development. Thus development is justice rather than wealth.
Critical literacy needs dialogue and participation (Fagerlind et al., 1989). Through genuine dia- logue, people are expected to achieve transformed, or heightened consciousness. Therefore,
Freire views literacy as a process of "conscientization" (Freire, 1970).
Freire's Pedagogy
To understand the basic themes underlying the philosophical content of Freire's pedagogy, it is important to recognize the influence of existentialism, phenomenology, Marxism and Christianity. His thought was shaped by these philosophical strains along with his classical hu- manism (Collins, 1977).
Freire emphasizes the political nature of education. His thinking demonstrates the power of education as a liberating force. However, the oppressed require their own pedagogy to achieve this (Gee, 1988). Freire offers radical alternatives to the existing narrative forms of education.
He argues that there can be no neutrality in human praxis. Education is either for domestication or for liberation (Connolly, 1980).
His writings are filled with criticism of traditional banking and extension education methods used to preserve privilege or imposed by revolutionaries to coerce people into believing in their leadership. Freire directs his criticism at the separation of teaching from learning. Banking edu- cation is used to domesticate students because it emphasizes transfer of existing knowledge to passive objects who memorize, recite and are deposited (James, 1985). By regarding knowledge as private property, banking educators are paternalists who view students as objects or recipients of their "prescription" (because knowledge is a medicine to cure the illness of ignorance).
Banking educators mythify a reality in an effort to submerge the creative consciousness of the s- tudents. Banking education methods dichotomize teachers from learners, and humans from the world. The teacher thus deposits information in the students in much the same way that an indi- vidual deposits money in the bank (Frt:ire, 1985).
An alternative to banking education is dialogical education which, Freire states, responds to the problems of emergent consciousness. Depositing in the classroom must give way to problem- posing, so that students are required to examine, to know and to transform their world, and thus participate in genuine communication. Freire stresses that the role of thinking is indispensable in the making and remaking of the world. Freire calls this process "archaeology of consciousness,"
discovery of history and culture as the work of men, as problems to be solved by authentic praxis (Collins, 1977).
Freire's pedagogy aims at making it possible for oppressed illiterates to become aware that they can change their own situation. The main task of adult education is to bring up a process of critical reflection that leads to action and change. Education is seen as an element in the neces- sary process of human liberation (McLaren, 1988).
Applying Freire's Process
In order to apply his philosophy to adult literacy, Freire (1972) states the importance of dia- logue: ''Without dialogue there is no communication, and without communication there can be no true education" (Freire, 1972, p81). The teams of coordinators who initiate the literacy program should not impose their reality on the illiterates, but they should help the learners create their own word and world (James, 1985). Freire (1988) explains how the teams developed the literacy program in Brazil.
Phase 1: The coordinator investigates the vocabulary of the groups in a community. This re- search is carried out during informal meetings with the people in the community. The coordina- tor finds out not only the existentially meaningful words (and thus the greatest emotional con- tent), but also typical sayings and expressions. The coordinator's interviews reveal longing, frus- trations, disbelief, hopes and an impetus to participate.
Phase 2: The coordinator selects the generative words from the vocabulary which he/ she inves- tigated in the community. The coordinator should use following criteria:
a) Phonemic richness;
b) Phonetic difficulty (The words should be placed in a sequence from easy to difficult.); and c) Pragmatic tone, which implies a greater engagement of a word in a social, cultural and political reality.
Phase 3: The coordinator creates the 'codification', that is, the representation of typical existen- tial situations of the group. The codification functions as challenges, as coded situation- problems containing elements to be decoded by the groups with the collaboration of the coordinator.
Discussion of these codifications will lead the literacy study group toward a more critical con- sciousness and will help them learn reading and writing.
Phase 4: The coordinator elaborates agendas, but the agendas should not serve as rigid sched- ules to be followed.
Phase 5: The coordinator prepares cards in which the breakdown of the phonemic families cor- responding to the generative words are written (Freire, 1988).
After the material has been prepared in the form of slides, filmstrips or posters, and the teams of coordinators have learned new aspects of Freire's pedagogy and have been given their a- gendas, the program itself can begin. Teaching the purely technical aspects of the procedure is not recommended. The educator needs to develop a new attitude, that is, dialogue. The educator must be converted to dialogue in order to carry out education rather than domestication (Brown, 1975).
Cultural circles are organized consisting of 25 to 30 illiterates. Meetings in the literacy pro- gram are held every week-night for one hour during six to eight weeks. The first two to eight
weeks are used to analyze the ten pictures illustrating the distinction between nature and culture.
At the next session the coordinator introduces the first generative word. Participants are asked to make up more words from the cards and to bring their list to the next meeting. At the rest of sessions the other generative words are introduced one at a time (Freire, 1988).
Freire's Methodology
in
PracticeFreire's approach has become popular since he published the book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. His pedagogy, however, was not always welcomed by the government because his ideology viewed literacy as a struggle over power relations (Torres, 1988). Some countries em- ployed his pedagogy very seriously while others used it superficially or misused it. In this sec- tion, I will describe four adult literacy practices in Brazil, Nicaragua, Tanzania, and Guinea Bissau in relation to Freire's pedagogy.
Brazil
The major industrial investments in Brazil since 1950 have not solved its chronic problem of unemployment. Accompanying the high rate of economic growth, the income distribution has been worse. A large proportion of the rural population and rural emigrants are illiterate, and illit- erates had been constitutionally deprived of political rights and were not represented in the leg- islative power. Political controls thus were in the hands of the traditional privileged class. The deep conflict between the urban masses and the power structure created unrest in the 1960s.
The "Conscientization" approach to literacy was primarily formulated in the context of Northeastern Brazil in the early sixties. The sociopolitical climate in this area was nurturing a va- riety of such radical efforts (La Belle, 1986). Freire as a coordinator launched 'cultural circles' successfully in this area and the following year he was invited to be the director of the National Literacy Program (Timpson, 1988). Thus Freire's influence extended from Northeastern Brazil to encompass the entire country. With the support of Education Ministers, Freire drew up plans to import 35,000 slide projectors and establish 20,000 'cultural circles' throughout Brazil. Eight- month training courses were begun for coordinators in nearly every state. It was anticipated that by 1964 two million people would be undergoing Freirean literacy programs. By linking literacy to critical consciousness, Freire's approach became an effort to liberate the people, and not sim- ply an instrument to teach reading and writing.
Not all sections of Brazilian society, however, viewed these developments with enthusiasm.
A conservative newspaper accused the Freire's methods of stirring up the people, giving them ideas about changing things and hence fermenting subversion. Although the political climate was favorable at that time, the Freirean program was implemented only eighteen months in
Brazil. In 1964, a military coup occurred and under the new government Freire was arrested, jailed, labeled a subversive and eventually driven into exile in Chile.
After a long exile, Freire returned to Brazil and is now a professor of Philosophy of Education at the university level. His literacy method, however, has not been seriously imple- mented in a massive scale in Brazil. The central objective of the Brazilian government is to in- crease production. It explicitly accepts the short term cost of major inequalities
in
the social dis- tribution of income and applies human resources policy aimed at creating human capital for de- velopment. Along with this political direction, the Brazilian Literacy Movement (MOBRAL) seeks to develop functional literacy and, at the same time, to provide semi-skilled training (Lind&
Johnston, 1986, Bhola, 1982). The concepts of Freire's pedagogy is not only misused in this pro- gram, but also contradicts the content and aims of Freire's pedagogy. Nonetheless, the MOBRAL program received several UNESCO awards. It has been claimed to be successful by the govern- ment and by the World Bank (1974), but Lind and Johnston (1986) argue that other reports
(Selander, 1977) have shown how the statistics on attendance and success are falsified by the teachers, who get paid according to the number of participants in their classes.
Nicaragua
A special census in 1979 revealed that over 50 percent of the population was illiterate in Nicaragua, with an average of 75 per cent in rural areas. This condition persisted before the Sandinista revolution because the promotion of universal literacy was neither economically neces- sary for the functioning of the system nor politically advisable for its maintenance (Cardenal &
Miller, 1982).
After the triumph of the Sandinista revolution, the existing social structures were examined to determine whether they were able to meet and guarantee basic human needs and rights.
Nicaragua entered a phase of rapid social change focusing on the redistribution of power and wealth, as a means to improve the lives of the nation's poor (Fernando et al., 1981). One year af- ter the revolution, Nicaragua was transformed from a violent war zone to an enormous school.
"One battle had been won and another begun: the National Literacy Crusade" (Saenz, 1981, p.16).
The country became engaged in a nation-wide learning campaign never before attempted in Central America. After five months, the crusade officially ended. During this period, more than 400,000 people learned to master basic reading and writing skills. Basic illiteracy had been re- duced from over 50 percent to less than 13 percent (Arnove, 1987).
When Freire visited Nicaragua, he announced his enthusiastic support for both content and pedagogy. The crusade's teaching methodology was in part inspired by the work of Paulo Freire and was similar to a Nicaraguan church-sponsored program of the early 1970s. A number of
Freire's pedagogical concepts were endeavored to put into practice. They consisted of a several- stage process using a dialogue and phonetics approach. The materials used in the literacy cam- paign were designed to prepare people to play an active role in creating dialogue. Literacy educa- tion principally helped people conceive adult education as a political process involving conscious- ness raising. The educator tried to stimulate people to see themselves as makers of culture and transformers of their environment. Such an approach, however, was not really possible in Nicaragua because literacy workers were volunteers who were minimally trained and mostly y- oung people. They could not have been accomplished by strict adherence to the ideal model of Freire concerning content development (Arnove, 1987).
Hirshon (1983) observed the difficulties of implementing Freire's innovative pedagogy in the Nicaragua campaign. The first step of each lesson - the dialogues between the literacy in- structors and the adult students - was the most difficult to conduct. The literacy workers found it a frustrating and confusing assignment because they had never been taught that way. The y- oung literacy workers, who lacked experience and preparation, were unable to lead discussions on the themes contained in the reader. A topic such as the liberation of women is too complex for young literacy workers to explore with adult learners.
The outcomes of the literacy campaign was not necessarily what was expected. People sometimes resisted learning a particular message. The message may not have been effectively communicated under certain situations. For instance, those who opposed the content of the liter- acy material were not only an elite group, including the middle class, but also the poor groups which viewed the new political system as a threat to their beliefs and values. Particularly, indige- nous and English speaking populations of the Atlantic coast have seen the Spanish-speaking Pacific Coast region of Nicaragua as a source of repression. Conservative rural Christian popula- tions also believed the Sandanista revolution was associating with communism. Because of this resistance, the impact of the political message was weakened and the political themes in the read- er were omitted.
Deviation from political themes in the literacy campaign occurred not only in these in- stances but also in other occasions. Although the literacy workers faithfully used the reader, many learners were grappling with letters, sounds and words, not with political ideology.
Furthermore, literacy workers concentrated on rote drill in order to make learners pass the litera- cy tests.
It
is not surprising that the literacy process resembled a traditional teacher-directed ped- agogy and an almost mechanical approach to literacy instruction.Tamania
Ever since its independence in 1961, Tanzania has been trying to achieve the goals of na-
tional development and self.reliance. Unesco sponsored a functional literacy project that was im- plemented in the late 1960s. The Unesco project tried out the concept of functional literacy as an efficient means to make individuals acquire the 3 R's (reading, writing, and arithmetic), raise pro- duction, adopt better health practices, participate more in civic affairs and so forth. The plan was infused with a uniquely Tanzanian socialist ideology (the spirit of Ujamaa of familyhood) which called for major expansion in primary and adult basic education.
After successful completion of the pilot project sponsored by Unesco, President Nyerere di- rected the nation to take adult education more seriously than ever before (TANU, 1967).
The illiterate ones will never be able to play their full part in the development of our coun- try of themselves; and they will always be in danger of being exploited by the great knowl- edge of others. Therefore it is necessary that we should plan to overcome the existing high level of illiteracy. We must help as many of our people as possible on this first step up the hill; afterwards they will be able to climb up further by using this basic knowledge to read and study more (Nyerere, 1979).
A new policy required that primary schools serve as centers in each community for adult educa- tion and that headmasters be responsible not only for education of children, but also for adult ac- tivities.
The goal of the Tanzania campaign reflected a different conceptualization of the methods and outcomes of literacy. They reflected not only the functional literacy concept, but also Freire's concepts such as consciousness-raising and social change (Unsicker, 1987). In fact, Freire was invited to Tanzania as a consultant. During his visit in Tanzania, Freire suggested that it would be advisable to make the primer more 'problem posing' and open. His suggestion, however, was turned down. Literacy planners argued that if peasants were allowed to criticize the advice of the extension agents, they would undermine their authority.
If
peasants began to discuss whether they wanted to grow cotton or not, they might decide against it, and if they produced no cotton, where would foreign exchange be obtained from? As long as peasants had reason to suspect that the foreign exchange they earned for the country was used to produce or import consumer goods for other classes, it might indeed be difficult to convince them to produce an export crop which had a relatively low price. Although Nyerere articulated the importance of human liberation in his speeches, literacy education carefully avoided giving the peasants an opportunity for articulat- ing these experiences. It did not arouse much interest in either the educational process itself or the messages that were communicated (Freyhold, 1979).Mushi(1988) argues that reflecting on a different conceptualization of adult literacy caused misinterpretation and misconception among the people. While it is true that the national literacy rate was 85 percent in 1985, the figure referred to the acquisition of the 3 R's and not to the func-
tional aspects. Most adult learners and village leaders understood literacy as learning the 3 R's per se, while the literacy teachers understood it as solving socio-economic problems. Some coor- dinators understood it as implementing government policies.
In
fact, the broader dimension of lit- eracy which is emphasized by Nyerere or Freire has not been understood, but has rather been confusing.The major source of the misconception arises out of the process of the literacy campaign.
Mushi(1988) points out several reasons such as toirdown structure, delivery system and the vague concept of literacy. When the learners were asked why they were attending adult educa- tion classes, the general answer was "Because we have been told to." In reply to another ques- tion as to how they thought adult education would benefit them, the general response was "We don't know" (Mushi, 1988).
Guinea Bissau
Freire (1978) describes his involvement in a literacy program in Guinea Bissau in his book,
Pedagogy in Process: The Letter to Guinea Bissau.
I want to emphasize the satisfaction with which we, in the Department of Education of the World Council of Churches ... , received, in May of 1975, the official invitation of the govern- ment through the Commission on Education to make a first visit in order to discuss the bases of our collaboration in the field of literacy education for adult (Freire, 1978, p. 7).
Freire states that the government of Guinea Bissau invited him and a church team to visit Guinea and to participate in the development of a national adult literacy program. Harasim (1983), how- ever, sees this event differently. She interprets that Freire and his team had offered both financial support and pedagogical assistance for the adult literacy activities, and the government was not in a position to refuse.
In 1980, according to Harasim (1983), the Department of Adult Education of Guinea Bissau declared that literacy in the year 1976 to 1979 resulted in a failure. This failure was unexpected and raised many questions for educators in Guinea Bissau and internationally because the post- revolutionary context of the country and Freire's pedagogy of literacy work had created an expec- tation of success. Overall, Harasim sees that Freire had an idealist and populist ideology that led him to romanticize Guinea Bissau and its people. Political, economical, cultural and historical conditions of Guinea Bissau were not much taken into consideration by Freire in the design and implementation of the literacy campaign.
Harasim explains that upon independence, Guinea Bissau had no national identity as under- stood by the industrial West: culture, language, centralized market economy or political con- sciousness. Yet Freire strongly believed that a national consciousness was present in Guinea
Bissau.
Guinea Bissau remains a very heterogeneous country with over 30 ethnic groups, each with its own language, culture, economy and social structures. Creole (45% of the population) is usual- ly spoken as a second language. The literacy campaign was conducted in Portuguese which not only is the language of the colonial power and the elite, but also a language spoken by only 5 per- cent of the entire population (Brodkey, 1987). Dialects are all oral language dominant in all rural area and were not available in any written form during the campaign. Guinea Bissau had no liter- ate tradition and this created a serious problem: lack of motivation. Peasants saw no need for lit- eracy nor did they have any economic motivation to learn to read and write. Freire also noticed this situation but he went on working as though he could not resolve the contradiction (Freire &
Macedo, 1987).
The economy of the country was based on subsistence agriculture and the peasants were very tenuously related to the market process. There was no generalized experience of social op- pression, either through market relations or through colonial oppression. The peasants had not been submerged in the culture of the oppressor. Hence, there was no context within which the peasants could conquer their own world and emerge from a culture of silence. Further, there was no economic motivation among the subsistence producers to learn to read and write. There were no demands from a market place, no motivation through contact with a literate environment such as rural libraries, newspapers, etc.; nor had the state provided motivation through mass socio-eco- nomic reforms and transformation within which the literacy effort could serve as part of a larger process of social reforms and be viewed by the population as enabling a better life.
Freire's literacy strategy presupposed a fairly high level of development of the productive forces and a significant number of educated youths available to participate in the literacy work.
His model emphasized local autonomy over a centralized and planned campaign. The literacy worker was responsible to develop political education, rural development, health activities and lit- eracy in each village in accordance with the needs and realities of each situation. Such a strategy, however, presupposed the existence of a fairly extensive and developed infrastructure, such as roads, transportation systems, communication networks, etc., to facilitate the communication and coordination between the base and the regional and national bodies. In Guinea Bissau, such in- frastructure did not exist: the strategy fragmented and scattered the movement and led to the iso- lation of literacy workers in the villages. They were essentially on their own once they reached the village. Moreover, the concept of the literacy worker as defined by the literacy strategy was far beyond the abilities of the secondary school students participating in the campaign.
In short, Harasim (1983) states that Freire did precisely what in his book he stated should not be done: he assumed that he understood more than he did and transferred his method from
one Third World country to another.
Comparing the Adult literacy Activities
Political
AspectsComparing the four adult literacy activities, we can figure out that the government policies clearly defined the literacy methodologies. As Brazil's policy has emphasized economical devel- opment, the Brazilian literacy movement (MOBRAL) played a supporting role for the government policy. The economic aspect of MOBRAL has been important in promoting the upward mobility of some people and has contributed to provide semi-skilled training (Bhola, 1982). Although the technical structure of the pedagogy is the same as that associated with Freire, the MOBRAL at- tempted the depoliticization of popular education and sought to develop functional aspects of liter- acy.
On the contrary, the other three countries, Nicaragua, Tanzania and Guinea Bissau, were seeking socialist policies. For instance, Tanzania expressed a desire to emphasize socialism and self-reliance in the Arucha Declaration of 1967. The nationwide mass literacy campaign was launched in 1971. The campaign was not conceived in the aftermath of a revolution, but rather as the natural culmination of political development. Although Nyerere emphasized full participation, freedom and human liberation, the campaign was canied out in a rather top-down manner since bureaucratic structures of the party and government had been established. Mushi (1988) ex- plains that the few technocrats in the Ministry of Education arrived at a decision with little consid- eration of the masses. Freire's liberating literacy did not fit with this top-down decision malting structure.
The literacy programs in both Nicaragua and Guinea Bissau were canied out in a revolu- tionary stage. However, the results of the two counties were quite different. After the revolution, Nicaragua entered a phase of rapid social change focusing on the redistribution of power and wealth as a means to improve the living condition of the poor. The Nicaraguan people saw the lit- eracy campaign as vital to the functioning of every aspect of the transforming society (Rojo, 1984).
Similar to Nicaragua, Guinea Bissau had begun mass based rural centered development ac- tivities after its independence. Contradiction, however, emerged in its political practice. Political emphasis shifted from agricultural, grass-roots activities
toindustrialization, urban development and elite education. The emerging alliance between the bureaucratic middle class and the pro-in- dustrial socialist sector ignored the rural sector in favor of an urban-industrial development.
Resources were allocated toward supporting a semi-industrialization policy rather than mass ba-
sic education in the 1974-80 regime. The adult literacy program affected this
shift.The program
was thus dependent on international support and resulted in failure.
Socio-economic and historical aspect
According to Harasim (1983), the Freire literacy method was a product of a particular his- torical moment in Brazil during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The method presupposes specific socio-economic and political conditions, which are not available in many other Third World coun- tries. Freire literacy aimed at easing Brazil through the transition from the old, archaic plantation society to the modem industrial, democratic society. Dialogue, for instance, was directed at over- coming the old forms of social relations, the master-slave relations, characterized by the "culture of silence." Freire's notion of dialogue represented a new form of communication relevant to mod- em society, heralding a more democratic and rational relationship between classes.
Freire's method presupposed a context already quite penetrated by capitalist market rela- tions in which oppression is social reality embedded in the material conditions. Given a class so- ciety, a certain relation of oppression would be experienced by the worker, landless peasant, etc.
and along with that an awareness of and interest in literacy. In Brazil, there was a market econo- my to "motivate" the learning of reading and
writing,and also a political motive, since only literate were allowed to vote.
However, there was a major contradiction between the assumptions implicit in the Freirean strategy and socio-economic and historical conditions of the other developing countries. In the case of Nicaragua, people may have shared similar experiences with Brazilian workers and land- less peasants. In Africa, however, experiences were quite different from that of Latin America.
For instance, in Guinea Bissau, there was no common language and non-development of market relations. In rural area, the peasants were very tenuously related to the market process. Living in a world of subsistence agriculture, there was no generalized experience of social oppression. The peasant had not been submerged in the culture of the oppressor. In this situation, critical litera- cy may have failed to raise critical consciousness among illiterates.
Diffusion aspects
Roger (1983) suggests that ''the complexity of an innovation, as perceived by members of a social system, is negatively related to its rate of adoption" (Rogers, 1983, p.231). In this perspec- tive, Freire's pedagogy as an innovative literacy method is relatively complex. Freire's
writingis often criticized because of its obscurity. Freire answers to the criticism:
In the United States, people want facts, not theory ... [Freire's] language has to be contra-
dictory in order to grasp a contradictory reality. But, in the United State the habit is to
think not dialectically, but in a positivistic way. And then [Freire's] language becomes
mysterious (Facundo,1984).
Freire refuses to write texts that primarily give recipes, "because [his] political convictions are op- posed to the ideology that feeds such domestication of the mind" (Freire, 1985). He disdains the North American notion of "quick fixes." Education, according to Freire, is primarily about prob- lem-posing rather than answer-giving. "Experiences are not transplanted: instead they are re-in- vented" (Freire, 1987). Thus, Freire does not provide any practical guidelines on how to organize literacy projects administratively, nor does he ever mention the question of evaluation. The influ- ence of Freire on literacy is so widespread these days that the interpretation of the "conscientiza- tion" concept is now very broad and varies greatly. In latin America, there is hardly exist govern- ment literacy which does not define itself as "conscientizing" (Lind & Johnston, 1986). As a re- sult, instead of liberating, Freire's method is used to domesticate people in order to support a dominant class as the Brazilian example shows.
Freire is also opposed to the use of traditional primers: "Literacy education as cultural ac- tion, as I have said so often, cannot use traditional primers (Freire, 1987)." In practice, however, the primer was usually developed before the coordinator team went to a community.
In the case of Nicaragua, the primer was developed by national teams of educators in con- sultation with political leaders. The literacy material reflected careful pedagogical and linguistic planning in the selection and sequencing of context with concrete step-by-step guidelines. The process contained a series of suggested questions designed to help participants develop both ana- lytical skills and a profound sense of social responsibility. The question proceeded from simple to difficult. This primer development seemed to rely heavily on the prescriptive instructional theory which Freire disdains. In reality, the primer became programmed textbook-like instructions.
Then innovative learning easily falls into traditional learning.
In the diffusion process, change agents play an important role to transform the existing situ- ation into an innovative situation. One of the change agents in adult literacy is the literacy work- er. However, the quality of the literacy worker is usually low in Third World countries. In Tanzania, most of the literacy teachers were volunteers who were inadequately trained to commu- nicate the objectives to the learners as they themselves did not know them (Mushi, 1988). In Nicaragua, the most difficult aspect of the training was to prepare young workers - who were overwhelmingly from the urban middle class - to survive and succeed in often squalid poverty of the country side (Arnove, 1987). In Brazil, teachers were semi-volunteers, receiving only a small gratuity for their work. Seventy five percent of them were women. The turnover rate was high, and qualifications were relatively low (Bhola, 1982). In Guinea Bissau, literacy volunteers came from primary and secondary schools, mostly urban and almost untouched by the war. The young students, with little qualification and still less training and preparation, were confronted with diffi-
cult conditions in the village, an ambiguous method with contradictory objectives, and no support or even contact with the political organization or the education officials. Faced with these im- mense difficulties, the literacy volunteers soon dropped out (Facundo, 1984). Most Third World countries have the same problem: lack of qualified personnel. In applying the Freirean method, distortion of his original direction may be unavoidable at the local level.
Conclusion
Reflecting on the literacy practices in four different countries, we soon recognize that the process of practical implementation of Freire's theory presents a variety of difficulties depending on many factors apart from political orientation, such as socio-economic context as well as human and material resources. Freire himself has admitted the need for literacy primers for general na- tional use, for instance, in Nicaragua and Guinea Bissau. In practice, the dialogue method also turns into a kind of oral questionnaire rather than a stimulating discussion.
Freire can inspire and challenge those who are involved in literacy activities, but he cannot give solutions (Miller, 1982). And of course, we know there are no magic formulas. The impor- tant thing is to challenge people who must learn from others' experience and create their own fu- ture by authentic praxis.
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