Paulo Freire's utopia

the place of education in the conquest of human emancipation

Abstract

This article analyzes the emancipatory meaning in Paulo Freire. This notion articulates the revolutionary humanist dimension that the author attributed to the education for freedom. It develops the following question: what is the emancipatory meaning of the Freirean utopia? It is highlighted that the Freirean utopia is configured by overcoming the capitalist sociability when approaching education as a dimension of human praxis that is developed in the historical process. A bibliographic review was carried out for analyzing Paulo Freire's revolutionary humanism, especially Education as a Practice of Freedom and Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The Freirean dialogue with authors who approach Brazilian social formation and the Marxian tradition of studying the philosophy of praxis was also systematized to establish the relationship between education for freedom and human emancipation. The critical theory of education indicates that the Freirean utopia was guided by an integral and unlimited notion of freedom. The relationship between an education for freedom and human emancipation conferred a character of overcoming the capitalist sociability through its reproduction of the relations of exploitation, domination and oppression.