Decoloniality and critical environmental issue:

one discussion in the light of Paulo Freire

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to indicate some contributions of decolonial thought through Paulo Freire's theoretical-political interlocutions to the critical environmental question in Latin America (LA). Freire expresses in his pedagogical thought a political conception of educational philosophy oriented by the purpose of liberation. His decolonial critical pedagogy has on its horizon the liberation of those subjects who inhabit the peripheries denied by the modern-colonial world-system, the possibility of "becoming more". In this way, we should situate the political and pedagogical relevance evidenced by Paulo Freire in dialogue with the environmental field, since he did not declare himself as an environmentalist, nor did he ever produce about the environmental field. We find in this interlocution, the libertarian character in the counter action and dialectic of the colonial process, since the open spaces between the dominant culture and the resistance to domination are relevant to this discussion. The article is systematized in three moments: in the first, we will introduce the discussion about decoloniality and the interlocution in Paulo Freire's AL. In the second moment, we will reflect on the relationship between decoloniality and the environmental issue in the light of Freire's approaches. In the final considerations, we will explain the contributions of a decolonial perspective of the Brazilian educator to the critical environmental debate.