Multi-grade classrooms and circulation of knowledge: teaching peculiarities in rural schools

Resumen

The article presents outcomes and conclusions which derived from reflections on teaching
practices conducted by rural schools teachers in multigrade classrooms in Uruguay during 2009 and
2010. These have led to a theoretical proposal that goes beyond the social specificity of rural
schools and conceives the existence of multigrade classrooms as a determinant of particular
educational settings which allow the possibility of circulation of knowledge. This movement
involves creating teaching strategies that will, on certain occasions, allow breaking graded
structures considering the multigrade structure as a unit. The heterogeneous characteristics of
rural school groups derive on a number of teaching practices focused on diversity from a didactic
point of view. The content organization becomes the foundation of the didactic scene in
multigrade classrooms and groups, triggering circulation of knowledge mechanisms during teaching
and learning processes. These, together with the curriculum content and production environments,
are habitats where knowledge is expressed and recreated. The outcomes of these ‘knowledge
produced to knowledge learned’ flows has become a necessary object of observation and theory
generation in order to understand the dynamics, constraints and opportunities present in
multigrade classrooms