An analysis of the philosophy of Paulo Freire for the purpose of structuring community education programmes

A model had been designed for a Community school for a small town in fulfilment of a written assignment during the first year of the writer's post-graduate course. This model embraced education from pre-school through primary, middle and senior levels to further education for individuals and for community. The population of this parish is approximately three thousand. Within the entire parish there is a variety of "communities", from at one extreme, those living in affluence, prosperity and luxury to the other extreme where exists social and economic deprivation that impinges on the day to day efforts to live in a community that offers a meagre sense of fulfilment as well as constraints of human development and of self-actualization. The further education plan of this proposed community school was characterized by a diversity of courses, a flexibility of methods, an adaptability of curricula and a variety of educational venues in order to embrace effectively this complexity of "communities". One segment of this urban population, a small specific working class community, became a special concern of the writer, when an opportunity arose to do research work in adult education. Prior to undertaking this project, the writer's knowledge of this specific community was minimal; this limited awareness was acquired through hearsay and through conversations with others who were directly or indirectly involved in their lives. This research was initiated on the hypothesis that this is a small segment of the parish community that is socially and educationally deprived and deserves an in-depth investigation of the people's needs in order that they may be capable of benefiting satisfyingly and meaningfully from what a new design of a community school offers to its community. Consequently, this piece of research marks an initial stage i.e. the first rung of the ladder that is the identification of Community's needs and the second rung which is a suggestion of an education programme to meet these needs which may he entitled "Community Adult Education".

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

masters

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

National University of Ireland Maynooth

Year dc:date.issued

1976

Author dc:creator

• Rouine, Brigid Barbara

• Education

Language dc:language

en