The Paulo Freire Forum consists of a space for the study and realization of Paulo Freire’s legacy and for the strengthening the ties that bind us through encounters between people and organizations developing work and research from a Freirian philosophical perspective. It is structured in two dimensions: in person, at the international meetings held biannually and virtually, through discussions on the worldwide web of computers (internet).
On the 28th, 29th and 30th of April, 1998, almost a year after Paulo Freire’s death, Paulo Freire Forum educators organized the First International Meeting of the Paulo Freire Forum at the Pius XI Institute in São Paulo, Brazil. With the support of Unesco, this event elected Paulo Freire’s Legacy as its theme. The São Paulo Charter was the final document of this meeting. The second meeting, entitled The Paulo Freire Method and New Technology, took place in March, 2000 at the University of Bologna, Italy. At that meeting, the Bologna Charter launched the Pro-Paulo Freire Universitas Movement.
In September of 2002, the Third International Paulo Freire Forum convened at the University of California in Los Angeles with the theme Education: the Possible Dream. On that occasion, the Planetary elections manifesto was drawn up and approved. The fourth meeting was held in the city of Porto, Portugal. Moving toward multicultural citizenship became the central focus of that event and that theme was proclaimed in the contents of the Porto Charter.
The Fifth International Paulo Freire Forum took place in Valencia, Spain with the theme Freire’s Pathways: Oppressions, Resistances and Emancipations in a New Life Paradigm. At this event, it was decided that, because it marked the tenth anniversary of the first encounter and the fortieth of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, the 2008 encounter would again take place in Brazil. This, the sixth edition of the Forum, organized in partnership with the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP), will occur between September 16th and 20th and have
Globalization, education and social movements: 40 years of Pedagogy of the Oppressed as its theme.