Walter Omar Kohan

Paulo Freire (1921-1997) is one of the most widely read and studied educational thinkers of our time. His seminal works, including Pedagogy of the Oppressed, sparked the global social and philosophical movement of critical pedagogy and his ideas about the close ties between education and social justice and politics are as relevant today as they ever were. In this book, Walter Omar Kohan interweaves philosophical, educational, and biographical elements of Freire's life which prompt us to reflect on what we thought we knew about Freire, and also on the relationship between education and politics more broadly. It offers a new and timely reading of Freire's work and life. The book is structured around five key themes that provide a new perspective on Freire's work: life, equality, love, errantry and childhood. It includes a contextualization of Freire's work within the past and current political terrain in Brazil, and encourages educators to put themselves and their educational work into question by highlighting some of Freire's lesser known thoughts on time. The book also includes a conversation with Lutgardes Costa Freire, Paulo's Freire's youngest son, a dialogue with the co-founder of the Latin American Philosophy of Education Society, Jason Wozniak (West Chester University, USA), and a foreword by the renowned Freirean scholar and activist Antonia Darder (Loyola Marymount University, USA).

A Philosophical Biography

Paulo Freire

Paulo Freire (1921-1997) is one of the most widely read and studied educational thinkers of our time. His seminal works, including Pedagogy of the Oppressed, sparked the global social and philosophical movement of critical pedagogy and his ideas about the close ties between education and social justice and politics are as relevant today as they ever were. In this book, Walter Omar Kohan interweaves philosophical, educational, and biographical elements of Freire's life which prompt us to reflect on what we thought we knew about Freire, and also on the relationship between education and politics more broadly. It offers a new and timely reading of Freire's work and life. The book is structured around five key themes that provide a new perspective to on Freire's work: life, equality, love, errantry and childhood. It includes a contextualization of Freire's work within the past and current political terrain in Brazil, and encourages educators to put themselves and their educational work into question by highlighting some of Freire's lesser known thoughts on time. The book also includes a conversation with Lutgardes Costa Freire, Paulo's Freire's youngest son, a dialogue with the co-founder of the Latin American Philosophy of Education Society, Jason Wozniak (West Chester University, USA), and a foreword by the renowned Freirean scholar and activist Antonia Darder (Loyola Marymount University, USA).

“A constant belief seems to give life to Kohan’s theoretical work and philosophical practice. A supposition that one could never prove, or disprove, motivates Kohan’s ceaseless erring and essaying, his efforts to invent school. We read it in-between the lines of nearly all of his published work, and those who have had the chance to take part in his manner of philosophical askēsis feel it in his practice. It is a belief that he shares with Rodríguez: All children, adolescents, and adults, from all walks of life, from any corner of the globe, no matter their economic status, occupation, gender, race, or ethnicity, can philosophize. But perhaps more profoundly, and it is here where I think Kohan’s written work and practice mirror the pedagogy and text of Rodríguez, philosophizing, living philosophically, with anyone, for anyone, we can invent school. The Inventive Schoolmaster: Simón Rodríguez is indeed about the inventive Simón Rodríguez. More importantly, however, it is an essay which shows us how a life of philosophical essaying and errantry can invent school. And in this regard it is also an introduction to the singular form of Walter Kohan’s philosophy of education.” – Jason Thomas Wozniak

Simón Rodríguez

The Inventive Schoolmaster

Barbara Weber

Thinking, Childhood, and Time: Contemporary Perspectives on the Politics of Education is an interdisciplinary exploration of the notion of childhood and its place in a philosophical education. Contributors consider children’s experiences of time, space, embodiment, and thinking. By acknowledging Hannah Arendt’s notion that every child brings a new beginning into the world, they address the question of how educators can be more responsive to the Otherness that childhood offers, while assuming that most educational models follow either a chronological model of child development or view children as human beings that are lacking. The contributors explore childhood as a philosophical concept in children, adults, and even beyond human beings—Childhood as a (forgotten) dimension of the world. Contributors also argue that a pedagogy that does not aim for an “exodus of childhood,” but rather responds to the arrival of a new human being responsibly (dialogically), fosters a deeper appreciation of the newness that children bring in order to sensitize us for our own Childhood as adults as well and allow us to welcome other forms of childhood in the world. As a whole, this book argues that the experience of natality, such as the beginning of life, is not chronologically determined, but rather can occur more than once in a human life and beyond. Scholars of philosophy, education, psychology, and childhood studies will find this book particularly useful.

Walter Omar Kohan

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