Education of the countryside, place, and curriculum: legal instruments and perceptions of geography teachers of the Agrestina-PE education network

Abstract

This qualitative research comprises a case study involving document analysis, the development of workshops, and the application of a questionnaire with a Focus Group made up of primary school geography teachers from the Agrestina Municipal Network in Pernambuco. We sought to analyze the current curriculum documents and textbooks of the school network, intended for the Geography curriculum component in the final year classes of primary school in the countryside and in the city, in order to identify the approaches to place and the references to the place where students live, emphasized by cultural geography, based on the teachers’ perceptions. Despite the struggles and achievements to consolidate a Rural Education Policy, rural schools still suffer not only from the nucleation and closure of units across the country but also from the lack of attention, appreciation, and recognition of their identity. In the school network investigated, in addition to the precarious employment relationship of geography teachers and the low percentage of training in the subject area taught, it can be seen that schools located in rural areas adopt curricula and textbooks that do not contemplate place as a living space endowed with meanings and feelings between subjects and living spaces. This scenario can widen inequalities and sow the seeds of devaluation and topophobia towards places of experience.