Physical Description: 2 Linear Feet(1 oversize box)
Scope and Contents
This large stick puppet with a papier-mâché head was used by Prof. Alma Flor Ada in her classroom instruction dealing with
Freire. It is a likeness of Freire (note: glasses are missing).
From Alma Flor Ada:
"This puppet was created by Julia Marshall, art professor at San Francisco State University, at the time she was a doctoral
student at the School of Education, International Multicultural Education, University of San Francisco.
Following the Transformative Education principle of using art and creativity while constructing knowledge, Julia set up an
original interview with Paulo Freire as a presentation for one of Dr. Alma Flor Ada’s courses.
Julia selected sections of recordings by Freire and created a tape that would answer very appropriately with Paulo’s recorded
words a set of questions. She placed the puppet she had handcrafted on a chair and sat across from it. Whenever she asked
a question, another student hidden from the class, would play the appropriate answer from the tape.
Since no-one had any knowledge of what she was planning to do, she created quite a bit of expectation by setting several posters
announcing Paulo Freire’s presence at the class set time. It was all so cleverly done that numerous students from other courses
showed up believing they would indeed see Paulo Freire.
The puppet sat for several years at my office. Although I do miss its company, I’m delighted to have it be at the Paulo Freire
Archives at Chapman University."
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Ada, Alma Flor
Freire, Paulo