RURAL AND UBARN AREAS

educational experiences based on solidarity

Abstract

This article is related to a research project that the author has been carrying out with his research team on the topic “The Valuing of Country Culture in Rural Schools and in Teacher Training for Rural Areas”. When Marx and Engels made a historical analysis of the division and opposition between urban and rural areas, they considered them the source and cause of the social division of labor. In the field of education this antithesis is expressed in the simple transplantation of urban models to rural schools and the concomitant disdain for country culture. The antithesis, opposition and domination of the city vis-à-vis the country can be overcome through solidary forms of relationship and exchange. This paper briefly discusses five experiences from the perspective of change in the relations between the rural and urban environments. One of them is described by Paulo Freire in his “Letters to Guinea-Bissau”. The other ones were made by professors and students at four universities of the state of Rio Grande do Sul: the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), the Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel), the Federal University of Santa Maria and the University of Passo Fundo. Encounter, dialogue and the exchange of experiences prove to be effective in overcoming distance and prejudice from a perspective of reciprocity, communication and solidarity.