Paulo Freire and John Holt: from liberating education to freedom beyond education

Abstract

Paulo Freire and John Holt represent with their work two of the most outstanding pedagogical currents in the second half of the 20th century: popular pedagogy (or liberation) and radical, critical pedagogy. In this paper we conduct an analysis of the way in which the work of these two authors converges, while also diverging, in certain fundamental aspects of their critique of institutional education which spread internationally after the Second World War. In addition, we present an exploration of
the differences existing in their methods for studying the relationship between education and freedom, as well as the different pedagogical alternatives that both Freire and Holt developed. Finally, we consider the contributions to the pedagogical thinking of the 21st century, a time in which the postmodern pedagogical imaginary is gaining prominent presence in the West. In the conclusions we rethink the contemporary relevance of Holt to the detriment of Freire, an intellectual with pedagogical approaches that are finding it harder and harder to fit into the new discursive arena.

Key words: Paulo Freire, critical pedagogy, John Holt, unschooling, postmodernity.