Existential Individual Alone Within Freire’s Sociopolitical Solidarity

Synonyms

Existentialism; Freedom; Conscientization; Angst; Authenticity; Dialogue

Introduction

Freire’s work has been recognized as lacking some careful and systematic attention to details on occasion (Dale and Hyslop-Margison 2011; Gerhardt 1993; Roberts 2010). This is not a serious criticism but is simply accepted as characteristic of his humanizing approach. One example of an event Freire identifies as important but does not provide systematic details about is the personally existential encounter an individual must face alone while being educated and liberated to participate in the sociopolitical solidarity of her context. Existential encounters are often marginalized due to the all-important focus upon dialogue between others. This contribution seeks to draw attention to the existential experiences of educational transformations to which Freire refers, explaining that these are not just juxtaposed ideas (Hufford 2010) but must necessarily be experienced alonebecause of their...