Abstract

This autoethnographic study investigates the phenomenon of critical consciousness raising, as proposed by Freire, through popular education. Situated in the critical pedagogy field, it analyzes a personal transformative experience of conscientização, to explore how critical consciousness is developed in practice through popular education, what are the factors, conditions, and dispositions that can contribute to raising critical consciousness, and what can be the consequence of critical consciousness raising to one’s life and one’s communities. For that, a quick introduction of the main theoretical concepts is presented, and a literature review of 36 autoethnographic studies on critical consciousness was conducted. Employing a narrative method of inquiry and analysis, the methods for data collection and analysis are also discussed. The main findings of the study are that dialogue and praxis are main elements in the process of developing critical consciousness in popular education; desire for change and dialogical communication aligned with practice, are required for raising critical consciousness; the consequences of the process of conscientização including greater autonomy, responsibility, and leadership, fostering collective organization and social transformation. For further research, it is recommended to expand the questions approached in this study to a greater context, employing empirical research on the processes of critical consciousness raising among different people involved in one or more popular education initiatives within a community.