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Paulo Freire, Eduardo Frei, Literacy Training and the Politics of Consciousness Raising in Chile, 1964 to 1970

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 November 2004

ANDREW J. KIRKENDALL
ANDREW J. KIRKENDALL
Affiliation:
Texas A&M University.
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Abstract

This article examines the politics of literacy during the administration of Chilean President Eduardo Frei. Literacy training was an essential part of Christian Democratic efforts to promote agrarian reform and rural unionisation and incorporate the peasantry into the Chilean political system. Paulo Freire, working for the ministries of agriculture and education, was able to employ his innovative ‘consciousness raising’ techniques throughout Chile. In practice, the campaign often blurred the line between creating a critical consciousness and creating a Christian Democratic consciousness, while Freire himself became caught up in political struggles within the administration over the extent and pace of reform.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , November 2004 , pp. 687 - 717
Copyright
2004 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

Funding for the research for this article was provided by Texas A&M University's College of Liberal Arts Faculty Research Enhancement Award programme, Center for Humanities Research fellowship programme and the history department. The author wishes to express his gratitude for the helpful suggestions provided by those colleagues in his department who, in the spring of 2002, were still untenured, as well as those from the three anonymous JLAS reviewers.