Description
This book develops a new theory and practice of Freirean art literacy based on decolonial principles. It investigates the implementation of Freire's ideas in the context of middle school visual arts education based on the author's research and experience of teaching in Italy and Europe and drawing on art works and theory from Brazil, Chile and Africa. Vismara offers an auto-ethnographic analysis of personal experiences of art teaching, educational tools, workshops, and strategies. She proposes an innovative and decolonial approach to school planning that starts from the students' words and world. Artists' words, youth street culture, imagination, and the iconography of mass images are presented throughout the book as examples of how educators can use visual art to develop the process of Freirean conscientization with their students. This book rediscovers and reinvents Freire's ideas, applying his critical and political approach to visual arts literacy in new theoretical and practical ways.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I: Critical Education as a Political Act
1. Brazil: 1946-1964
2. Education for Critical Consciousness
3. “Coding and Decoding” as Liberating Acts in Literacy Programs
4. Chile: 1964-1969
5. The Political Development of “Conscientization”
6. Freire's Chilean Experiences and the Language of Praxis
7. Africa: 1975-1976. The experience in Guinea Bissau
8. Letters from Guinea Bissau: The Influence of Amílcar Cabral's Marxism
9. Back at Home in Brazil: 1980-1997
10. How the Freirean Critical Language is Still Relevant
Part II: Visual Art Class at Middle School
11. Foreword: school and social emancipation
12. “Fabio Besta” School: Socio-Economic Context and Italian and European Policy Guidelines
13. Diary of an Italian Experience (2014-2019)
14. Stories of Resistance: Personal Notes on my Students and Events
15. Body and Emotions
Part III: Re-Imagining Freire's Approach for Visual Art Education
16. A Freirean Path for Radical Visual Art Pedagogy
17. Research Through Coding
18. Decoding for Thematization (Interpretation)
19. Problematization as Recombination (Transformation)
20. Contemporary Visual Arts and Images through a Freirean and Decolonial Approach
21. Black “Venus”: From the Contemporary Stereotype to the Imagery of Sarah Baartman
22. Body and Sexuality: Racializing Women in the Western Canonical Art
23. Body, Identity, and Colonial Legacy
Conclusion
References
Index
Product details
| Published | 23 Jul 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (PDF) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 320 |
| ISBN | 9781350584501 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 10 bw illus |
| Series | Bloomsbury Critical Education |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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