^{The first Freire Conference, “The Thoughts of Paulo Freire in the Current Research in Education“, organised by the Cambridge Latin American Research in Education Collective (CLAREC) and the social movement for popular education Universidade Emancipa, took place in November 2021 at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. This conference was part of a two-week series of events “Paulo Freire 100th Anniversary: ​​Celebrating His Legacy in Education“.}

^{It involved around 1260 participants from different regions around the world and involved 14 initiatives, such as lectures, reading groups, seminars and workshops, organised by 16 partner entities, including research groups and collectives from Brazil and the United Kingdom. The events and the installation of the bust of Paulo Freire at the University of Cambridge, which was also part of the cultural and academic programme, had significant visibility within and outside the university community and were recognised as an inspiring collective initiative.}

^{The second edition of the Freire Conference proposes to broaden the limits and cross the barriers that separate the academic communities (especially those belonging to the most traditional and hegemonic institutions) from education and popular knowledge by promoting meetings, relationships and democratic spaces that have in common a striving for transformation and social justice.}

^{The “II Freire Conference: building the bridge between popular education and university” aims to disseminate and produce new ideas and practices of popular education based on Paulo Freire’s thoughts. We believe that Paulo Freire’s legacy remains present and relevant. Updating his ideas – and, above all, the critical reflection on praxis or the conscious educational practice – drives the debate and dialogue for developing a democratic and democratising education. Our main objectives with this initiative are:}

🗨 <sup>To promote pluricultural, democratic and popular spaces capable of challenging the established limits, such as the segregations and exclusions common to meritocratic academic processes, to allow the participation of all who are interested in submitting and sharing their work, regardless of their educational background or stage in the student trajectory.

🗨 To consolidate the event as a recurring and annual initiative so that it becomes a regular space in which students, scholars, young people and adults from different origins, cultures, institutions and stages of their student path can meet and promote – from diverse perspectives and dialogues – new proposals for the popular and emancipatory education that Freire imagined, practised and theorised.</sup>

🗨 ^{To develop new approaches and methodologies for meeting and exchanging knowledge based on the idea of what a student conference can be from the perspective of popular education. With this in mind, this project is being organised in collaboration with the authors who presented their work at the 2021 conference and are now mobilised for the construction of a new cycle, sharing fundamental principles of intellectual work and collectivised research.}

🗨 ^{To disseminate and strengthen Paulo Freire’s global work by recognising and legitimising its importance in the field of education, especially in the current context of frequent attacks by neoliberal conservative and reactionary forces that try to remove education’s liberating and emancipatory character.}

<sup>The conference will be structured and based on three activity formats:

Expository: conferences and working groups;
Cultural and artistic: presentations and exhibitions;
Dialogic: open conversations for the formation of networks of research and engagement.

In addition, to democratise access to this initiative, whether through the presentation of papers or participation in meetings, this conference will be free of charge and have the possibility of online access, with translations into English, Portuguese or Spanish.

All activities will promote inter and pluricultural integration between formal, non-formal and communitarian knowledge. Furthermore, there will be an implied understanding of cultural and territorial environments as previous sets of values and standards that guide educational experiences and practices. In this way, the activities of the conference will focus on stimulating mutual understanding, recognising and valuing diversities, and expanding consciousness about oneself, the world, and methods for tackling inequalities and social transformation made possible by popular education.</sup>