Rural education and critical thinking

This research focuses on teacher training in the context of rural education in the Alto Vale Piranga region. It sought to examine the training process of its educators, both formal and informal, from the perspective of critical thinking. To contextualize the research, a description was made of the region where the subjects of the narratives are located, as well as its historical and cultural relevance. Next, a summary was provided of the particularities of the historical trajectory of rural education in Brazil, up to the emergence and consolidation of the concept of Rural Education. The research sought to understand the current situation of the Brazilian peasantry, the clashes between antagonistic projects of nation and education, and the new challenges of a critical and emancipatory training of educators working in the countryside. Finally, the analysis of the narratives reaffirmed the critical-political stance of the educators present in the research; however, hidden discursive contradictions were found. Thus, there is a need for critical thinking and dialectics as a fundamental theoretical and methodological basis in teacher training courses that aim at the human emancipation of rural workers.