UC San Diego

Paulo Freire stated that there are two ways to be in this world: a "non-reflexive" one, which implies being an object of the history, and a "critical" one, which means being a historical subject. As part of his pedagogy, this Brazilian educator designed a transition methodology between one conscience and the other, in order to liberate the oppressed people. This proposal has been applied in a wide variety of contexts throughout the world, not only in populations with limited resources. However, there is little literature on these processes.

This work is an ethnographic research that focuses on the experience of promoting indigenous women (factory workers, domestic workers, store sellers) with low schooling, who become teachers of high academic and human quality within a Freirean project of Popular Education and Local Development of INEPE (community-based organization from La Dolorosa de Chilibulo / Isoloma) in Quito - Ecuador. It is argued that the agency (conceived as the act of educating for freedom) is part of the development of critical awareness of these indigenous women; and also, that these are simultaneous, collective and spiral processes, driven by solidarity, participation and dialogue of knowledges.