Outlook of Licentiate Degree Courses for Rural Education in Brazil

Abstract

This text presents the results from a study that aimed to map the existing Licentiate Degree Courses for Rural Education in the different Brazilian states, as well as comparing such offer to the existing rural population an obtain the demand per region and thus reflect upon the importance of providing opportunities for specific teacher formation for the rural. The research is characterized as a quantitative survey, whose data were obtained through document analysis. This data survey was carried out by means of consulting the e-Mec portal during the month of May 2018 and considered the registered and functioning courses in the base year of 2017. It identified 61 Licentiate Degree Courses for Rural Education in the country, 29 of which in the classroom attendance modality and 2 in the Distance Education (DE) modality. The Northeastern region offered the highest number of courses with a total of 8. In contrast, the Midwestern region has the lowest offering, accounting for only 4 courses. The country has a rural population of over 30 million, there are states with over 1 million inhabitants in the rural zone but no teaching institutions offering Licentiate Degree Courses for Rural Education. Although there has been an increase in the offering of such courses in the country when compared to previous studies, there is still a need for public policies aimed at providing opportunities of offering such specific training in such a way as to balance out and meet the demands by Brazilian regions and states.

Keywords

• rural education
• licentiate
• mapping
• proportional offering.