REFLECTIONS ON THE POTENTIAL OF LICENTIATE DEGREE COURSES IN EDUCATION FOR RURAL AREAS IN BRAZIL

Abstract

Based on historical-dialectical materialism, this article presents partial results of a research, supported by the National Center for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), which focus is the praxis of graduates from Education in Rural Areas Licentiate Degrees ‒ LEdoCs and teachers working in these courses aiming at investigating the transformations that such praxis triggers, especially in the area ofknowledge production, based on some structuring elements of the formative matrix of these Licentiate Degrees. This research employs a qualitative approach, based on the analysis of theses and dissertations on LEdoCs. The results reveal that their original materiality, rooted in the triad of field/public policies/education, structures a formative matrix that opposes the hegemonic educational model. Formation by Areas of Knowledge, articulated with Alternating Formation, the promotion of student self-organization, combined with the perspective of Omnilateral Formation ‒ principles supported by the Epistemology of Praxis ‒ are presented as formative strategies and intentions that articulate academic and community knowledge, seeking to promote the integral development of educators in formation in these courses. Furthermore, all these relevant articulated strategies have repercussions on knowledge production processes and contribute to the formation of Organic Intellectuals, in Gramsci's terms, capable of acting in the transformation of their realities. One can conclude that although LEdoC courses face contradictions and threats from the continuous advance of agribusiness on peasant territories and the lack of sufficient funding for public policies on Education for Rural Areas, they have been consolidating themselves as a fundamental instrument of resistance and emancipation, training educators committed to an alternative societal project.