The Relevance of Rabindranath Tagore and Paulo Freire for Participatory Communication

Abstract

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941), Asia’s first Nobel Laureate, and the Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire (1921–1997) are part of a global network of pioneering educators who have striven to create non-authoritarian learning and dialogical communication systems, which are appropriate to their respective contexts. This chapter attempts to assess the relevance of Tagore’s ideas on education and Freire’s conscientization method in the field of development communication, especially participatory communication.