Learning how to teach in the rural school. The evolution of the professional identity in the multigrade classroom

Résumé

The study presented explores the procedures used by teaching staff to overcome the deficiencies that have grown in rural schools, the construction of their professional identity on the basis of the conditions that exist in this type of school, and the organisation of the teaching to match modern requirements. The work draws together the most relevant aspects from a study in which ethnic methodology was used in a well developed investigation in Andalusia over the period 2003 to 2006 in rural infant and primary schools. The circumstance of the environment in which they find themselves is central, and control of the profession, through experience, constitutes an element to improveeducational efficiency that the fraternity of teachers offers as an answer to the training shortfall they have suffered. Furthermore, it is verified that putting into practice flexible levels of instruction and didactic models, matched to the circunstances, respond to the exigencies resulting from the differing ages of the pupils in the rural multigrade classroom. The results also highlight that in the education and learning scene of the rural school, the teaching staff form part of the structure which enables social interaction and coexistence of those who form the Educational Community.