La formación ciudadana en la obra de Freire

The document recognizes the closed relationship that Freire establishes between education and citizenship. Based on this, he begins stating that the existing problems in education shall not be limited to methodological or pedagogical matters, but that it has a highly political component. This statement affirms that the main contribution of Freire to education is the query to a oneway teacher-student relationship, and not to the school itself as an educational institution. Such a contribution is reinforced by the work done through popular education, considering this as a social and political process which fundamental interest is to analyse the living conditions of those in the poorest and most vulnerable areas of society. Such analysis looks to generate an awareness process for social transformation, which in the words of Freire can be stated as an educationfor decision making and liberation, keypoints needed to achieve citizenship. The political role played by education as considered by Freire, allowed him to strongly believe that teaching adults that do not know how to read and write, and popular education are necessary components of education and the exercise of citizenship.This text makes a journey through the political – educational thought of Paulo Freire, beginning with a short insight of his educational path. It pretends to show the existing coherence between his life and in his educational practices. It then presents its main contributions to the field of education, and finally it establishes the contributions to the topic of citizenship education