Teacher training for rural education

the majors in Natural Sciences and Mathematics

Abstract

Teacher education for rural education turns out to be a public policy that has taken shape since the last decade in Brazil, especially after the rules that established operational guidelines for basic education in rural areas. In 2006, the first offerings of undergraduate degrees in rural education with majors in Natural Sciences and Mathematics took place in four different states of the country, in regional areas that have historically had an insufficient number of teachers to meet these demands. An announcement released by the Ministry of Education in 2012, called public universities for submitting their proposals for new courses, showing their demands and potentiality for offering them. Considering that they are recent, there is a limited number of academic productions about these majors. Given the situation outlined above, the current paper carries out a study on the characteristics and theoretical frameworks that guide teacher education to work in rural areas - majors in Natural Sciences and Mathematics - offered by Brazilian federal public institutions benefiting from the 2012 project. Empirical material was built through a literature review and an analysis of some pedagogical projects, electronically available, relating to ongoing courses was conducted. Importantly, 42 university proposals were approved in the context of that announcement and include higher education institutions located in all federation states, except São Paulo. At last, this study aimed to render contributions to formulate public policies in order to establish an education system that meets the needs of the course attendees, with a view to building an effective education in/of the countryside.