ABSTRACT
In the winter 1985 issue of Harvard Educational Review (HER), Martha Montero-Sieburth, then an assistant professor in the Harvard Graduate School of Education, published a review of Paulo Freire’s new book The Politics of Education. “Paulo Freire is known primarily for his contributions to the education of illiterate adults in the Third World,” noted her opening sentence. “In his most recent book, The Politics of Education: Culture, Power and Liberation, however, his pedagogical philosophy, experiences, and methodology extend far beyond geographic boundaries; they encompass the political realities of the oppressed everywhere” (Montero-Sieburth, 1985, p. 457). Six pages in length, the review is a broad discussion of Freire’s life and ideas and a forceful call for scholars in the field to engage his approach to education. “Freire’s politics put history back into our hands,” she concluded. “Beyond the power of the alphabet is the power of knowledge and social action. This book enlarges our vision with each reading, until the meanings become our own” (p. 463).
