Teaching Radio Documentary Production in Brazil: A Freirean Approach

Teaching radio documentary is an art and craft inextricably tied to the country, community, and culture where the form flourishes. How then does one teach it internationally, across all those variables? By localising the documentary course to those factors, as the authors have done in Brazil by applying an educational model native to that country, even though this pedagogy has never been applied to this subject. Brazilian educational theorist Paulo Freire propounded an emancipatory education model through literacy education and culture communities that cut to the heart of his country’s dilemmas via 'posing problems' to challenge social inequalities. Applying this to a class at the University of Sâo Paulo, this approach was combined with that of 19th century Danish educator N.F.S. Grundtvig, a theologian, author, and philosopher who encouraged adults and teenagers to engage with social issues in groups, building community and understanding social issues. The result was the first course in documentary radio taught in Brazil.