Many of our educational principles and practices are derived from “popular education,” first articulated by the late Brazilian educator Paulo Freire who was writing in the context of literacy education for poor and politically disempowered people in his country. It’s different from formal education (in schools, for example) in that it is a process which strives to empower socially and politically marginalized people to take control of their own learning and to effect social change.

Popular education is a collective effort in which teachers and learners aren’t two distinct groups. Rather, everyone teaches; everyone learns. Learners make decisions about what they are learning and how the learning process takes place. A facilitator makes sure that new ideas arise and develop. Each one facilitates another’s learning and helps each other as they learn.

In popular education, the learning process starts with identifying and describing everyone’s own personal experience and that knowledge is built upon through various activities done in groups. After the activity, a debriefing process allows learners to analyze their situation together; seeing links between their own experience and historical and global processes. Through the generation of this new knowledge, they’re able to reflect more profoundly about themselves and how they fit into the world. This new understanding of society is a preparation to actively work towards social change. In fact, in popular education, the education process isn’t considered to be complete without action on what is learned, whether it be on a personal or broader level.

*Image reproduced from the informal education encyclopedia/forum (www.infed.org)