ABSTRACT
Educational virtues can be found in individual teachers and students, but they can also be present in groups and evident in systems, structures, policies, and practices. An attitude of openness is a permanent orientation: as unfinished beings, we should, Freire believed, always be open to new ways of understanding the world, new approaches to addressing old problems, new forms of learning, and new modes of communication. This chapter differs somewhat from Benkler and Nissenbaum's insightful essay in its purpose and domain of inquiry. Beginning with Aristotle and drawing in particular on the work of the influential Brazilian educationist Paulo Freire, authors set out to show that openness has ontological, epistemological, and ethical dimensions. Freire gained worldwide educational attention with the publication of his classic work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1972a), translated into English in 1970.
