Abstract

SAUL, Alexandre  and  SAUL, Ana Maria. The methodology of thematic investigation: political-epistemological elements of critical-emancipatory research praxis. e-Curriculum [online]. 2017, vol.15, n.2, pp.429-454. ISSN 1809-3876.  https://doi.org/10.23925/1809-3876.2017v15i2p429-454.

In the year that marks the 20th anniversary of Paulo Freire's absence in the world, this article honors this classic author by highlighting the thematic investigation, a counter-hegemonic method of research and construction of knowledge, created by Freire, which contributes in an original manner to the field of human and social sciences. This approach of research is based on dialectical epistemology in which reality is understood as a complex, contradictory historical process, in permanent becoming. It constitutes a theoretical framework for participatory methodologies, opposing to the instrumental logic, since which fundamentally imports is the production of a critical knowledge, that helps the subjects to understand and overcome their limit-situations, placing the theoretical reflection at the service of the action to transform understandings and practices. This position can not be confused with a pragmatic stance, which reduces the act of researching to the immediatist resolution of problems of daily practice, nor to an activist form of political mobilization. In this form of investigation, which carries within itself the principles of critical-emancipatory pedagogy, subjects can reflect on the conditions in which they live and work and, in interaction, seek to understand, criticize and face the mechanisms that sustain inequality and exploitation in the local, middle and macro levels of social structure.

Keywords : Methodology of Thematic Investigation; Paulo Freire; Action Research.

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