Printed press (newspapers) and Paulo Freire's literacy theory: written media as a teaching-pedagogical resource for children's literacy

Abstract

Based on the practical-theoretical principles of Paulo Freire's educational proposal, we discuss the use of the printed newspaper in children's literacy, considering its insertion in the literacy activities as a simplified possibility of understanding the totality of the material, the information and the context to which it refers. Through the interpretative and critical appreciation of contemporary literacy and the issue of the written media, we hermeneutically present the printed newspaper as a methodological resource for a reading of the world that leads to the reading of the word in the literacy process that raises awareness. It follows from this that written media is a potentially freeing teaching-pedagogical resource, for it enables awareness by means of reflection on the concrete context of life. We conclude that the option to use the printed press (newspapers) in children's literacy activities is pertinent to the variation of media and information carriers, as well as necessary to the understanding of the totality of information accessible in digital media.