Social Work professional activity of social workers: popular education methodology as an intervention strategy

Abstract

This work raises a discussion concerning the popular education methodology used by social work professionals. It is a result of observations concerning authors related to this area and the challenges that professionals face to work according to the ethical-political project of social service. Our objective was to evaluate how the activities of social work professionals is based on popular education methodologies aimed at the education of individuals critical of their social reality. In the face of current challenges, including reinforcement of capital dominant strategies and the neoliberal perspective of the bourgeois state, the search for alternative interventions according to the working-class struggles emerge as a necessary point of discussion to social work. The analyses presented in the study have, as theoretical framework, the dialectical materialism and were based on investigation of authors such as: Paulo Freire, Faleiros, Barroco and Gramsci. We did a literature review resulting in discussions concerning social work activities, the ethical-political project and popular education. In conclusion, social work professionals can collaborate with the orientation of underprivileged classes to be recognized as social-historical individuals capable of creating a social revolution.