The Applicability of Freire's Method of Teaching Literacy in a Third World Context

This paper reports findings on the use and applicability of the method of teaching advocated by Paulo Freire. It underscores the proposition that a method of teaching cannot be neutral; thus teaching methods are used with the aim of facilitating achieve ment of specifically desired objectives. The paper tries to verify the proposition that the ultimate objective of Freire's method of teaching literacy is to awaken and raise the participants' conscience against the ills of oppression and exploitation, and goes on to discuss the extent to which the method could be used as a strategy for speeding up the development process of a nation, by using education as a tool of transformation. The generative words used to experiment with the method were obtained from a survey conducted in Ubungo ward in Tanzania. The procedures employed in the method are outlined, describing the actual stages employed to teach a literacy class by following Freire's Method of teaching literacy. The applicability of the method is then described in view of the results of the experiment and in the context of Tanzania as a Third World country, with the aim of generalising the results to other developing countries. The results of the study proved that the method was applicable in the Tanzanian context, and has some implications for development, to other Third World countries, and to the process of learning in general.