Paulo Freire and the Value of Equality in Education

Abstract

This article seeks to elucidate the philosophical sense of equality affirmed by Paulo Freire as a condition of a liberating education, for which “accepting and respecting difference” is another of its conditions. More specifically, it analyzes his statement that “nobody is superior to anyone else” (FREIRE, 2017, p. 119) in its logical, epistemological, educational and political dimensions. This analysis is developed in five sections. In the first section, a detailed and conceptual examination of the afore-mentioned phrase is proposed. In the second section, the paper considers the implications of this examination for an educational life inspired by Freirean thought; it specifically studies the sense of equality in the pedagogical relationship, that is, between teachers and learners. In the next section, it introduces the ideas of another advocate of equality in education, the French author Joseph Jacotot, in the early nineteenth century. In the fourth section, it compares Jacotot’s ideas with those of Paulo Freire, highlighting commonalities and differences, both in their lives and in their educational thoughts. Finally, it draws some conclusions about the value of equality in education, inspired by the reading of these authors, in particular with regard to the place of knowledge and thinking in an emancipatory education.