Abstract
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is a critical examination and analysis of the ideas and performance of the educational administration headed by Paulo Freire, Secretary of Education of the municipality of Sao Paulo, Brazil between 1989 1991. It examines the intersection of politics and education in a fascinating and ambitious project of educational reform in a major Latin American urban center. The book offers an historical and political analysis of Brazilian and Latin American education, within a context of the dual conditions of structural adjustment and neoliberalism. It focuses on the Inter Project in greater detail, analyzing its goals, methods, curriculum design, and outcomes. The book offers an ethnographic account of the reform experience through an in-depth set of case studies of four Sao Paulo schools. It provides a set of conclusions for an ongoing dialogue on a pedagogy of hope, social movements and educational reform.