The Freire Project

I am originally from Toronto, and now reside in Montreal. I studied for
two years in France in the early 1980s, which proved to be a formative
learning experience, and then undertook the rest of my university
studies in Canada in the areas of political science, sociology and
education. I completed my doctorate in the sociology of education at
the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of
Toronto in 1996, with my thesis examining anti-racism and institutional
culture in education.

For a number of years I worked as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Government of Ontario on education and equity policies and programs. For the past few years, I have been a professor at Youngstown State University, where I teach courses in multicultural education, the sociology of education, diversity and leadership, and qualitative methodology. My current research is broadly concerned with social justice, with specific threads related to race and identity, critical pedagogy, democracy and political literacy, media literacy, and intercultural education. In 2007, I co-edited The Great White
North? Exploring Whiteness, Privilege and Identity in Education
(Rotterdam: Sense Publishers), and, in 2008, co-edited another book,
entitled Doing Democracy: Striving for Political Literacy and Social
Justice (New York: Peter Lang). I have recently finalized two other
edited books dealing with intercultural education and youth culture,
respectively, and have a single-author book democracy and critical pedagogy in press.

I am the co-founder and co-director of the Global Doing Democracy Research Project, which aims to produce a range of studies internationally, leading to critical, comparative analysis of how democracy and education can be more effectively connected. I have a blog on the Paulo and Nita Freire International Center for Critical Pedagogy, where I am a Research Associate, on the theme of democracy (econ-ocracy, which addresses the neo-liberal manifestations and distortions of the true meaning of democracy).

I also write poetry, and have been fortunate enough to collaborate with Spanish-speaking colleagues on several literary projects. Lastly, I have been involved in a range of projects and initiatives in relation to solidarity with, and development in, Latin America. My website is: www.paulrcarr.net.