Paulo Freire's humanism and the challenges of 21st century adult education

Abstract

Paulo Freire's humanistic adult education ideas were woven around his literacy 'method' that is synonymous with Conscientization. His ideas were aimed at empowering adult learners through the ability for critical thinking. He focused on critical thinking as a way of using education to rescue learners from decadent educational and political systems and making them truly human. This paper analyzes Freire's Conscientization and argues that it is more appropriate for addressing most of the challenges that confront 21st century adult education and adult learners. The discussion in this paper uses 21st century synonymously with globalization