Walking with Freire: Exploring the Onto-Epistemological Dimensions of Critical Pedagogy

One of the great misconceptions about critical pedagogy, Paulo Freire’s democratic theory of education, is that transformative learning is an activity that takes place in the mind. In this paper, the authors demonstrate the significance of material context in Paulo Freire’s conceptualization of his philosophy of democratic education. By using the theories of wayfinding (a sub-division of human geography) and critical posthumanism in dialogue with Paulo Freire’s autobiographical reflections in his post-Pedagogy of the Oppressed writings, the authors illustrate how critical pedagogy involved a literal reading of the material world. By sharing vignettes from his work in Brazil, Guinea-Bissau, Porto Mont, New York we highlight the significance of the body, emotions, and individual and local history as partners in the political-pedagogical project of transformative learning. Critical pedagogy is recast as an onto-epistemological praxis in which critical consciousness is understood as a process of becoming that is made possible through the relationship between the person and their land, including all its human and non-human inhabitants.