The Freire instructional program

In the late 1950's, a Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, developed an approach to teaching reading and writing. In his instructional program, the text was drawn directly from the learners' own lives, experiences, and thoughts.

The Freire instructional program is a program for teaching reading and writing developed by Paulo Freire to raise the consciousness of the ordinary people or the underprivileged of society by learning “...to value themselves as well as understand and critically evaluate the world about them. He wanted the masses to know...their voice was not only important, but they could act to influence their own destiny.” (Bendor-Samuel, M. 1977)

Freire's program is often called a problem-posing approach, because learners are trained from the beginning to look at what is wrong about their lives and community. As learners begin to read and write, they learn how to use their new skills to improve their lives.

Freire avoided using primers because he felt they were mechanical and did not allow for much flexibility in discussion. Furthermore, he believed primers discourage people from expressing and writing their own ideas. Some of Freire's colleagues, however, have produced primers.

Freire's influence is most evident in nonformal education and participatory education projects stressing a “learner-centered” approach to learning. In this kind of approach, the instructor is a facilitator and a mutual learner, rather than a keeper and dispenser of wisdom and knowledge.

The Freire instructional program uses “generative themes and words” as a starting point. It begins with photographs and discussion around the generative word. After the discussion the word is broken into syllables. The syllables are drilled and used to make new words. Thus the Freire method uses mostly the bottom-up model in teaching reading and writing.

Here are some assumptions of the Freire instructional program:

• The facilitator encourages discussion within the community regarding their needs and interests.
• The learners will be motivated if the content of the program is centered on community needs and interests.

The Freire instructional program has been modified greatly since 1974. His philosophy, however, has not. This program is a sample of the program as developed in 1976, but materials differ from program to program.

The Freire program depends on facilitators working with the community to choose generative themes and create materials. In some communities, the personnel to do these tasks correctly may not be available.

Curriculum materials may differ among Freire instructional programs. Here are some typical materials:

• Materials for the learners:

  • “Card of discovery”, which includes an illustration, a generative word, and a syllable chart
  • Paper for writing

• Materials for facilitators:

  • Illustration (often a photograph) with accompanying generative word(s)
  • Chart of syllables learned with each generative word

Here are some parts of the Freire instructional program:

Here is an example of a typical Freire lesson:

• The Freire lesson

• Current instructional programs

See the following online article for more information:

• Paulo Freire

• Bendor-Samuel, M. 1977
• Drew 1981
• Srinivasan 1977

• Structure module: Freire instructional program, by Martha A. Lane and Leah B. Walter (contributor)
• In overview module: Current instructional programs, by Leah B. Walter, Glenys Waters, and Trudy K. Stewart (editor)
• In overview module: Instructional programs, by Kenneth A. Boothe (contributor), Leah B. Walter (contributor), and Glenys Waters (contributor)
• In modular book: Implement a literacy program, by Carole P. Spaeth (compiler) and Leah B. Walter (compiler)
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 24 September 1999

© 1999 SIL International