6 From Aotearoa New Zealand to Brazil and Back: The Freirean Cultural Circle as a Political Tool for Enhancing Democratic Education

Jorge Knijnik^a and Genaro Oliveira^b

^aSchool of Education, Western Sydney University, Australia

^bSchool of Education, Charles Sturt University, Australia

Abstract

This chapter explores the legacy of Paulo Freire’s cultural circle, central to his dialogic approach to education in general, as an approach for fostering democratic education. Developed within the Popular Culture Movement in Recife (Brazil) during the late 1950s, cultural (or conversation) circles created participatory spaces where literacy emerged through community-determined themes. Although Freire’s work has had an impact on critical education in Aotearoa New Zealand, most notably among Māori scholars engaged in decolonising praxis, his ideas remain relatively absent from the country’s teacher education programs. In 2023, a group of 10 student‒teachers from Aotearoa New Zealand travelled to São Paulo through a study abroad experience and scholarship. Immersed in Brazilian public universities, schools, and community settings, they experienced living examples of rodas de conversa inspired by Freire’s model. These encounters challenged their prior assumptions, offering a vision of education grounded in dialogue, reciprocity and collective meaning-making, and inspiring democratic, decolonising approaches on both sides of the Pacific.

Keywords

Paulo Freire, cultural circles, democratic education, dialogic pedagogy, teacher education

The democratic school that we need is not one

in which only the teacher teaches,

in which only the student learns,

and in which the principal is the all-powerful commander

(Paulo Freire, 1998, p. 74). 

Paulo Freire is a widely known Brazilian educator whose ideas have pioneered democratic pedagogical knowledge and action. Among several political-pedagogical innovations that Freire has initiated in the mid-20th century, one has proven to be a key determinant of the success of his dialogic approach to education in general, and specifically to literacy: the cultural circles, or what was later named as the “conversation circles”.

Freire’s approach to literacy instruction was conceptualised within the framework of the Popular Culture Movement (Movimento de Cultura Popular – MCP), which originated in Recife (Brazil), Freire’s hometown, during the late 1950s. This socio-cultural initiative convened diverse constituencies ‒ including community members, practitioners of popular arts, university students, scholars, and lay citizens ‒ with the collective aim of reinvigorating regional cultural expressions. Integral to this movement were preliminary endeavours to foster literacy among individuals lacking formal education. The initiative received logistical support from municipal authorities, who provided essential resources such as seating, tables and accessible public venues for communal engagement. Within these spaces, participants assembled in dialogical forums known as cultural circles, which operated without externally imposed agendas. Instead, thematic content for discussion was democratically determined by the group itself. To facilitate and enrich these deliberations, coordinators occasionally synthesised emergent themes (Gadotti, 1996). Through this participatory discourse, individuals concurrently acquired literacy skills by engaging with and learning to read and write the salient vocabulary associated with the subjects of their interest.

In Brazil, Freire continues to be a powerful symbol, officially honoured as the “patron of Brazilian education” (Souza & Mendonça, 2019), and his legacy endures across both public and private schooling sectors, despite the rise of conservative movements catalysed by the electoral victory of far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro in 2018 (Knijnik, 2021). Internationally, Paulo Freire remains one of the few non-English-speaking scholars from the Global South to have sustained international impact and recognition in social science scholarship. In particular, his seminal work Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Freire, 2020) is consistently ranked among the most cited books in the field and has been listed as the third most cited among the top 25 works in the social sciences (Green, 2016).

Freire’s work has also had a lasting influence in Aotearoa New Zealand, dating back to at least 1974, when he delivered a lecture at a World Council of Churches seminar attended by around 200 people from diverse backgrounds (Oliveira & Moraes, 2024). Many had hoped for practical strategies to challenge oppression in education, but Freire instead chose to listen, telling the audience he was ‘very interested in continuing to listen to you in my silence’ (Roberts, 1999, p. 17), a response that frustrated some participants. Yet his work continues to be recognised by critical educators, especially in ways that resonate with Māori scholars and the wider project of decolonising education. Among those who have drawn explicitly on Freirean ideas, Professor Graham Hingangaroa Smith (Ngāti Apa, Ngāti Kahungunu, Kāi Tahu, and Ngāti Porou) stands out for his internationally recognised contributions to kaupapa Māori theory and transformative Māori education (Peters & Besley, 2015).

Despite Freire’s international acclaim, particularly his relevance among Māori scholars, his work was not widely cited nor taught in the university teacher education program where one of the co-authors of this chapter previously worked. Amid increasing managerialism and the rise of metric-driven reforms in universities, critical pedagogies have been gradually displaced by so-called compliant pedagogies to meet outcomes-based frameworks rather than social transformation. In the following pages, however, we recount an unexpected and intercultural experience: a group of 10 university students from Aotearoa New Zealand, none of whom had previously encountered Freire’s work, found themselves deeply engaged with his legacy after travelling to Brazil. These students had been awarded scholarships to visit public universities and schools in São Paulo, and it was there, in everyday encounters on the streets and in classrooms, that they encountered Freirean ideas. Though unfamiliar with Pedagogy of the Oppressed, they were captivated by Freire’s living influence, particularly the use of rodas de conversa (conversation circles), inspired by his earlier círculos de cultura (culture circles), still widely used across Brazilian educational settings.

The cultural circles are one of the most relevant educational actions employed by Freirean educators to emphasise the dialogical nature of a true democratic education. Freire (2000) was a strong critic of what he called the “banking education” model ‒ a traditional pedagogical model where students are viewed as passive recipients who must be filled with the teacher’s prescribed knowledge. Hence, the cultural circles are a space where teachers, students and the whole community enter into an ongoing conversation with each other. It’s from within these cultural circles that learning emerges – not as an outcome of top-down teaching recipes but as a social relationship marked by the historical context of all participating actors of each circle (Freire, 2000).

It was this strong dialogical context that the NZ student‒teachers would encounter in São Paulo. Rather them learning specific methods on “how to teach Brazilian students”, the cultural circles provided them with a new vision of what education could be. What follows are the stories that show how Freire is being reinvented each day across the southern hemisphere – from Auckland to São Paulo and the way back.

Face-to-Face With Freire’s Legacy: Student-Teachers Witness Circles of Conversation

In 2023, an extra-curricular study abroad opportunity was offered to all initial teacher education (ITE) students: a fully funded international program to São Paulo, Brazil, supported by the Education New Zealand scholarship scheme (Education New Zealand, 2023). Ten student‒teachers from across Aotearoa New Zealand were selected to travel to São Paulo for 3 weeks, accompanied by one of the co-authors of this chapter, a Brazilian academic and lecturer based at Massey University at the time. The students selected for the program reflected the typical demographics of those who attend initial teacher education programs in Aotearoa New Zealand. Most were of Pākehā/European descent, with one student of South African origin and one who self-identified as having Māori whakapapa (ancestry). All were based in urban centres and studying online in a hybrid mode, participating in both online lessons and face-to-face workshops and practicums. Gender representation also aligned with national trends in education, with 7 of the 10 participants identifying as female and 1 as non-binary. The selection criteria included a demonstrated interest in Latin America, particularly Brazilian culture, as well as prior international experience, such as volunteering abroad or some knowledge of Spanish or Portuguese, which was considered an advantage.

The program was designed to promote intercultural exchange, personal transformation and a deeper understanding of education in a Global South context (Oliveira et al., 2024). Students visited a range of Brazilian schools and universities, engaged in seminars and roundtables, and explored culturally and socially significant sites. Although all participants were familiar with critical conversations about colonisation and the Treaty of Waitangi,^[1] an essential component of their teacher education in Aotearoa, none had formally studied the work of Paulo Freire. Yet, as the program unfolded, it became increasingly clear that the student-teachers were encountering Freirean pedagogy in lived and meaningful ways: through face-to-face encounters, everyday conversations and embodied experiences of the Brazilian education system.

From the outset, the program emphasised connection and dialogue. In preparation for the overseas trip, New Zealand students participated in online orientation meetings and engaged in digital activities that introduced them to one another and to the Brazilian context. They used Padlet to introduce themselves and initiate conversations with their Brazilian peers. Once in São Paulo, students continued documenting their experiences through blogs and social media, guided by reflective prompts from the research team. WhatsApp and Facebook were used not only to share information but also to build informal peer support networks and foster a sense of community. These digital tools helped students record their impressions of Brazil, articulate initial reactions to the education system they were encountering, and begin to make sense of their place within it.

However, it was through face-to-face immersion that the student-teachers began to truly encounter the pedagogical legacy of Freire. Their first school visit was to Amorim Lima, a widely respected public school known for its innovative and dialogical pedagogies and democratic learning environment. There, students are active agents of their educational processes; their school experiences are communal, and they exchange their learning with other bodies and minds (Biesta, 2015). In the Amorim Lima school, rather than passive listeners, students have a dynamic presence within the school premises. Rather than sit and watch, they experiment with their souls, brains and bodies (Dewey, 1961).

Thus, it was in this school that the student‒teachers from NZ experienced a strikingly different model of education, one without classroom walls, where teachers worked collaboratively with students, and where families and community members played an active role in shaping the school’s educational practices. In their introductory tour throughout Amorim Lima’s facilities, the NZ student‒teachers already noticed something different: instead of being guided by a staff member, the tour was led by current students at the school. Our main guide was a young female student, around 12 years old. She was confidently bilingual, having studied locally, and told us she had perfected her English because of her love for rock and roll. She stayed with us throughout the entire school tour. Accompanying her were two close friends of the same age who, although they didn’t speak English, were animated, warm and eager to communicate, smiling, gesturing and using their devices and translation apps to engage with us, showing images and local Brazilian artists and soundtracks. This trio formed the core group that stayed while others occasionally joined the group, drifting in and out as we moved through the school, adding to the sense of a dynamic and welcoming student-led exchange This action per se shows not only the young students’ agency, but how their presence in the school is valued and acknowledged as important members of that community, who are able to welcome international visitors and be ambassadors of their world (Freire, 2000). Moreover, these students’ confidence, communication skills and critical thinking deeply impressed the New Zealand visitors.

Ultimately, what began as an academic and cultural exchange gradually became a pedagogical one as well. The student‒teachers began to describe their own journey as a kind of circle of conversation ‒ not just something they observed, but something they were living. Through dialogue, inclusion, and shared experience, they discovered Freire’s pedagogy not in theory, but in action. Though none of them had formally studied his work before the trip, they encountered its power firsthand in the material, relational and political spaces of Brazilian education. The experience did not merely inform them; it transformed them. The conversation circles fostered further theoretical consciousness embedded in their practice. What could be a mere travel of bodies across the southern hemisphere became a conscious participation that transformed practice to promote pedagogical theory and change. This was an authentic democratic process.

Author Note

Jorge Knijnik https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2578-8909

Genaro Oliveira https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3552-3827

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jorge Knijnik. Email: j.knijnik@westernsydney.edu.au.

Acknowledgments

The reflections and learning about democratic education and Freire’s legacy presented in this chapter would not have been possible without the open doors and generosity of the public schools visited during the original study abroad experience, especially Amorim Lima, Escola de Aplicação, and Educational Centre for Indigenous Education (CECI) in Jaraguá, along with their students and staff. We also gratefully acknowledge the academic and logistical partnerships with our colleagues from the University of São Paulo (USP), Professor Diana Vidal, Dr Rita Gallego, and Paula Vicentini, as well as Associate Professor Lucila Carvalho from Aotearoa New Zealand. Data used for this chapter was originally supported by the following funding grants: (1) Prime Minister’s Scholarship for Latin America, an initiative by Education New Zealand (ENZ), (2) FAPESP, Edição 2019/04 Mobilidade/SPRINT, which involves Universities New Zealand and Universidade de São Paulo (Processo N. 2020/00894-5) and (3) FAPESP, Projeto Temático Saberes e Práticas em Fronteiras: por uma história transnacional da educação (1810–…), which started in 2019 (Processo N. 2018/26699-4).

SDG Alignment

Goal 4: Quality education

Goal 10: Reduced inequalities

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Attribution

Research Integrity Statement

This publication reports research involving human participants. Ethics approval was granted by Massey University’s Human Ethics Committee (Application ID: 4000027483). Informed consent was obtained from all participants.

The authors declare no known competing financial or non-financial interests that could have influenced the content of this publication.

References