Paulo Freire Dossier: A pilot project for adult literacy – from Brasília to Brazil

Abstract

The present study is the result of an investigation related to the adult literacy experience carried out in Brasilia in its early days. Initiated in 1963, under the supervision of Paulo Freire, the experience constituted the very embryo of the National Literacy Program (PNA), proposed by the João Goulart administration. The research that served as the cornerstone for this study was developed through document analysis, guided by a critical conception of the historiographical method. Data obtained interact with those collected in the Dossier Paulo Freire, granted by Professor Maria de Souza Duarte to the collection of the Museum of Education of the Federal District. The dossier consists of a collection of photographs of the first culture circles in Brasilia, as well as meetings at the federal level of the authorities responsible for the PNA, in addition to textual documents related to our researched object. The wealth of data found regarding Paulo Freire demonstrates the importance of his passage through the new capital and the emancipatory character of the literacy project. The abrupt interruption of the experience by the 1964 military coup prevented the continuity of public policies for adult literacy underway in Brazil, imposing the erasure of the presence of the educator in the country's capital during the military dictatorship.