UW–Madison’s John Baldacchino is the author of a new paper that was published in a special issue of the journal Espacio, Tiempo y Educacion celebrating 50 years of the publication of Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” and Ivan Illich’s “Deschooling Society.”

Baldacchino is a professor of art and education within the School of Education’s Art Department.
Baldacchino’s paper, “Separated by a Common Herodoxy. Illich, Freire and the Perilous Spell of Radical Canonicity,” challenges the common view that Freire’s and Illich’s respective works have a shared common ground.
The abstract notes that it is “too easy to argue that texts like ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ and ‘Deschooling Society’ can be aligned in sustaining a liberating and emancipatory approach.” However, the paper shows that, though noble, “such an approach would be detrimental to the one foundational aspect which both works happen to share: the claim to heterodoxy by which both Freire and Illich have endeared to make their case.”
“More than a standard academic paper, this is a reflection on decades of being engaged with these two books,” the abstract continues. “In a mix of personal and academic thoughts, and mostly taken from a Illichian perspective, the author argues that one must clearly separate these books by further submitting to a reading that would immediately dispense with the gloss by which they remain canonized though often confused. While not exhaustive, this paper is meant to provoke more questions than give any specific answers.”
Learn more and access the full paper here.