December 2025 - Pair your action with critical reflection

Written By Paul Fleming

Paulo Freire (art by Diario Pernambuco)

Dear Friends,

As a child in Northeast Brazil during the Great Depression, Paulo Freire—like so many others across the world—lived in poverty. His family’s inability to put food on the table had an impact on his education at an early age. Reflecting on that time, he said, “I didn’t understand anything because of my hunger. I wasn’t dumb.” 

Freire had a personal understanding of how one’s social position and their ability to learn and he was a keen observer of how these dynamics played out across his city. He went on to be a school teacher, then a professor, and ultimately a global thought leader with revolutionary ideas about education and social transformation. His ideas about literacy were not just focused on getting students to understand the word (how to read), but also to understand the world (critical understanding of socio-political factors that upheld injustices). He argued that this critical understanding of the word and the world would ultimately help spur social transformation and liberate us all from oppressive systems. In his groundbreaking work Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire emphasized that transforming our world requires a combination of critical reflection and transformative action (what he called praxis). It is insufficient to simply reflect and it is insufficient to take action. We must engage in a cyclical process of both reflection and action to truly transform the world. 

Last month’s newsletter focused on how we need to take risks and experiment to make a better world possible. Experimentation focuses on the transformative action portion of Freire’s concept of praxis, but any experimentation needs to be accompanied by critical reflection that considers how the action connects to the broader world and whether it is achieving its goals effectively. As we are approaching a new year, I am thinking about how to better pair my actions with reflection.

In many ways this newsletter has been an experiment. When I started, I wasn’t sure who would sign up or if my notes about how to make a better world possible would resonate with readers. Since I started in October 2023 (read the very first newsletter here), I have grown to have hundreds of readers and have mailed thousands of newsletters to people’s homes. Along the way, I have continuously reflected on the content I write and whether or not the newsletter is having the impact I hope it is. I’ve been grateful for the feedback I’ve received along the way from readers about how it has helped them, what they’ve appreciated, or what changes to make.  

But now, to do some deeper reflection, I plan to pause the newsletter for a few months while I reflect on where I take it next. I feel committed to continuing the work I set out to do with the newsletter: to inform, sustain, and inspire doers, leaders, and change-makers in their work to take collective action to make a better world possible. I’d like to spend some time reflecting on the best way for me to do that. You’ll hear from me again, but for now, a reflective pause.

Take care and pair your action with reflection,  

Paul

p.s. In chapter 10 of Imagine Doing Better, I write a bit more about Freire and these ideas. You can learn more about the book and order it here.

Today’s Key Point: Any action to make a better world possible needs to be accompanied by critical reflection to help ensure our actions are truly advancing our goals for equity and justice.

Today’s Reflection Questions:

  • How do you pair critical reflection with the action you take to make a better world possible?

  • How do you best practice critical reflection? Do you journal, talk with a friend, use a specific reflection tool, or some other way? Are you consistent about incorporating reflection?

  • As you approach 2026, what intention do you have for yourself in establishing a reflective practice?

Quote of the Month:

“Critical reflection on practice is a requirement of the relationship between theory and practice. Otherwise theory becomes simply ‘blah, blah, blah,’ and practice, pure activism.” -Paulo Freire

Paul Fleming
Next

November 2025 - Build a better world with experiments