Paulo Freire’s Ideas and Community Psychology Leadership Kurniawan Dwi Madyo Utomo(B) STFT Widya Sasana, Malang, Indonesia fxiwancm@gmail.com
Abstract. Comunities must explore alternative leadership ideologies to make meaningful academic and social improvements in the society. This research aims to explore Paulo Freire’s critical ideology that can be used to expand the conceptualizations of educational leadership and facilitate practical responses to multitudes of educational and social dilemmas in the society. The research method is a library study. This research found that Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed is not only related to school settings, but also it can work in other settings (e.g. neighborhood, mosque or church community, community centers, etc.) and can be manifested by community psychologists who have awareness and faith in their communities. Community psychologists should engage in people’s difficulties. Freire emphasizes the importance of dialogue. In this dialogue community psychologists must have faith in the capabilities of the oppressed to recognize and oppressive systems and structures that have affected their lives. Community psychologists and the oppressed should pay attention on the importance of the sense of collective efficacy for constructive changes. As a result, they will be able to build a foundation for wellness in their community. Keywords: Commnity psychology · Leadership · Paulo Freire · Solidarity
1 Introduction Paulo Freire was born into a middle-class family in Recife, capital of the Brazilian State of Pernambuco, on 19 September 1921. The experiences of his family during the Great Depression, which started in 1929, influenced his concern about the poor and his perspective on education. In graduate school he began to explore the connections between poverty and education. From his experience, Freire believed that education hold the best hope for the promotion of social justice and the transformation of an unjust society. Implicit in this statement is that people who are rich and privileged also use education to maintain an unjust status quo (Gadotti & Torres, 2009). Freire enrolled at Law School at the University of Recife in 1943 where he also studied philosophy and the psychology of language. Rather than a career in the law, however, he chose to be a secondary school teacher of Portuguese. In 1946, Freire was appointed to be Director of the Department of Education and Culture in the Brazilian State of Pernambuco. He worked primarily with the illiterate poor. Freire began to © The Author(s) 2023 I. Hidayati et al. (Eds.): ICOPHI 2022, AHSR 66, pp. 51–58, 2023. https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-212-5_6