Reading Freire and Habermas

In this book, two well-known scholars of critical educational studies provide a compelling introduction to the thoughts of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire and German critical theorist Jürgen Habermas. While there are many other books about these influential thinkers, this is the first to compare their theories in-depth and situate their thinking in relation to other social theories and philosophies of education. The authors demonstrate that, despite their differences, these philosophers share crucial views on science, society, critical social psychology, and educational praxis that are mutually illuminating and offer a new point of departure for a critical theory of education.

The book is organized around the following themes: (a) Freire’s and Habermas’s philosophies of the social sciences as a form of critical social theory; (b) their theories of society; (c) the critical social psychology that underlies their conception of the dialogical and developmental subject; and (d) the implications of their overall perspective for educational practice

Raymond A. Morrow is Professor of Sociology and Adjunct Professor of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. Carlos Alberto Torres, a political sociologist of education, is a professor in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, as well as director of the Latin American Center.

“Few people have been as influential in helping us understand the relationship between culture and power as Freire and Habermas. Morrow and Torres creatively compare the two and in the process demonstrate how much we have to learn from them.”
—Michael W. Apple, John Bascom Professor of Education, University of Wisconsin–Madison