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Cambridge Journal of Education
Vol. 40, No. 4, December 2010, 327–339

Paulo Freire and ‘the need for a kind of education in hope’

Darren Webb*

University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
(Received 3 March 2010; final version received 10 August 2010)
CCJE_A_526591.sgm
Taylor and Francis
Original Article
4 0000002010
10.1080/0305764X.2010.526591
0305-764X (print)/1469-3577 (online)
Cambridge Journal of Education
2010
40 Taylor & Francis
DarrenWebb
d.webb@sheffield.ac.uk
This paper explores Paulo Freire’s philosophy of hope. This is significant because,
for Freire, it was human hope that rendered education possible, necessary and
necessarily political. Like other areas of his thought, however, his reading of hope
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contained ambiguities and contradictions, and the paper explores these by locating
Freire’s thought in the wider context of the philosophy of hope. It focuses in
particular on the divergent interpretations Freire provides regarding the objective
and the experience of hope. It argues that many of the conflicting demands placed
on the radical educator stem from the tensions and vagaries one finds within his
philosophy. The paper concludes by discussing the wider significance of Freire in
light of the discourse of ‘complex hope’ that is developing within educational
studies.
Keywords: Freire; hope; radical pedagogy
Introduction
Without hope there is no way we can even start thinking about education. (Freire, 2007a,
p. 87)
‘Hope’ is a word often associated with the work of Paulo Freire. The touching tributes
that followed his death variously highlighted the life of hope, the language of hope and
the legacy of hope bequeathed by the Brazilian educator (Carmen, 1998; Giroux,
1996/7; McLaren, 1997). More fundamentally, Freire’s entire philosophy of education
was founded on his ontology of hope. For Freire, ‘Hope is rooted in men’s incom-
pleteness, from which they move out in constant search’ (1972b, p. 64). At the same
time, ‘It is in our incompleteness, of which we are aware, that education as a perma-
nent process is grounded’ (Freire, 1998a, p. 58). Hope and education thus share the
same ontological root, and are inextricably tied. For Freire, the very possibility of
education is grounded in his understanding of hope as the constant search born of the
human being’s consciousness of its own incompleteness. Not only the possibility of
education but also its purpose, for if hope is characterised as a constant search then the
purpose of education is to act as its permanent guide. It is for this reason that he talks
of ‘the need for a kind of education in hope. Hope, as it happens, is so important for
our existence, individual and social, that we must take every care not to experience it
in a mistaken form’ (Freire, 1994, p. 3).

*Email: d.webb@sheffield.ac.uk

ISSN 0305-764X print/ISSN 1469-3577 online
© 2010 University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education
DOI: 10.1080/0305764X.2010.526591
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