The aim of this paper is to investigate the concept of democracy and education developed by John Dewey and Paulo Freire. Reader of the work of Dewey, Freire also had contact with the debate of the ideas of this thinker in Brazil, particularly through the work of A. Teixeira and L. Filho. Study how the thought of Dewey echoes in Freire's work helps to understand his original way of weaving his concepts. Freire takes forward the idea of Deweyan democracy as a way of life guided by reflective thinking. He saw in the the problem-solving dialogue and generator of the meanings of the transforming action of the social and historical situation an educational process that can educate, humanize, free and, thus, overcome the oppression that is also historically created by man himself.
Dewey; Freire; Democracy; Education; Thinking