ABSTRACT
In the early 1960s a Brazilian educator named Paulo Freire and his collaborators developed a technique in the Brazilian backlands through which they could teach adults to read and write in the space of three to four weeks. This technique centered the literacy training process on “generative” words, that is, themes involved in peasants’ day-to-day lives, from which the process of learning to read and write flowed readily. Part and parcel of Freire’s project was his attempt to move the peasants toward a critical view of the oppressive reality of their lives, this view to be elicited through a dialogue between educator and student. Freire named this entire process concientização, which translates literally as “bringing to consciousness,” “making conscious,” or, most commonly in English, “consciousness raising.” 1
