ABSTRACT

As with the period of the UNESCO-backed literacy campaign in Cuba before it, the period 1964–1970 in Chile is arguably one of the few great watersheds in 20th century history of education. Notwithstanding involvement in revolutionary literacy campaigns in Grenada, Cuba and Nicaragua, as well as Chile during the Frei Montalva and Allende administrations, UNESCO has persisted with its traditional definitions of literacy and functional literacy. A literate person is “one who can with understanding both read and write a short simple statement on his everyday life.” Paulo Freire employs generative words to form the initial text for the literacy class, being words which represent situations or problems said to be germane to daily existence. The group reflects upon the implicit semantics, moving from micro to macro analysis and synthesis. From 1963 to around 1985 Freire’s epistemology remains impervious to systems of oppression not based on class, in particular gender and race.