The People Speak Their Word: Learning to Read and Write in São Tomé and Principe

Abstract

Paulo Freire reflects here on his role as consultant to the Adult Literacy Program in the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Principe—a role whose political nature, he argues,must be recognized. Repudiating purely mechanical approaches to teaching literacy,Freire advocates a theory and practice that links reading the word to "reading" the context. With the aid of primers, referred to as Popular Culture Notebooks, and the learners' own generation of words and terms relevant to their daily lives, adults learn to read and write through critical reflection, thus enabling them to realize their rights as human beings and to transform themselves and history.