Rosa Bruno-Jofré, Michael Attridge, and Jon Igelmo Zaldivar, eds., Rethinking Freire and Illich: Historical, Philosophical, and Theological Perspectives

Rethinking Freire and Illich is published at a time when there has been a surge in work on counter-hegemonic movements, policies, and practices in education.Given the growing power and influence of neoliberal, neoconservative, and authoritarian populist movements in so many nations, such work is important and necessary.There are two fundamental motivations behind such critically oriented work in education.The first is understanding the complex dynamics of exploitation, domination, and subordination that all too often structure our societies and their constitutive relations inside and outside of education.Yet, while understanding is absolutely crucial, it is not sufficient.Emerging out of such understandings is a commitment to interruption.Both understanding and interruption have their basis in a set of ethical and political -and as this book reminds us, at times religious -commitments that are simultaneously collective and personal.And both are crucial to this particular volume.The volume is the result of the symposium "Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Ivan Illich's Deschooling Society: Fifty Years Later," sponsored by the University of St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto.In recent years, there have been many events to celebrate Paulo Freire's influence in particular.But among the things that set this volume apart is both the sometimes surprising connections between Freire and Illich and the collection's genesis as a "tribute to the Catholic underpinnings of these public intellectuals" (3).It is not that usual to think of Freire and Illich together.But the work of both became more internationally visible at around the same time.Illich played a significant role in the development of an entire generation of romantic anti-school critics, and helped generate support among a largely middle-class population for these critics and for movements such as homeschooling.Freire became perhaps the most powerful and influential figure in the theories and practices of the more socially critical and politically engaged aspects of critical education.Yet even with these very evident differences, as the book documents these two figures did have an ongoing relationship with each other.