The rural teacher training and its competences as motivator of the rural school territorial dimension Erasmus Project

Project Title

The rural teacher training and its competences as motivator of the rural school territorial dimension

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Rural development and urbanisation; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The origin of this project is in the work developed by the Fundació del Món Rural and the Observatori de l’Educació Rural de Catalunya who since 2014 and from a participatory process developed a “Base Document to promote the improvement of rural education politics of Catalonia”, working “The challenges of the rural school”, the sixth of which concerns “On the need for specific training for the rural school teacher”.

This sixth challenge is the basis of the FOPROMAR project, which aims to strength the competencies of rural teachers and their initial and permanent training. This project is an Association of 6 partners of three different countries and specialized in three different main areas, rural development, initial education (universities) and permanent training (rural teachers). The partners are: the Fundació del Món Rural, the Universitat de Barcelona, the Universidad de Zaragoza, la Faculdade de Psicologia da Universidade de Lisboa, the Université de Bordeaux and the Federació de Moviments de Renovació Pedagògica de Catalunya.

The changes experienced by rural areas directly affect the link between rural school, its teachers, students and their family and society in general. The school has become a key element to ensure a minimum population presence in smaller municipalities and to ensure, not only the basic service that the school is itself, but to ensure basic cultural services like a library or a multifaceted space. The school is part of the institutional system of the State, because it concentrates social diversity, creates new social capital and, therefore, is a central element of the configuration of rural societies and its territory: the territorial dimension.

The rural teacher, as Manager of the rural school, both, in its basic functions of teaching and its social functions, needs specific skills and a lifelong learning plan adapted to the reality of their work scenario which permits: 1) have work tools to work in multi-graded classroom (pupils of different ages). 2) Generate different learning scenarios by taking advantage of the natural and social environment of the school and its social proximity and 3) To be a “social motivator” which considers the territorial school dimension.

The presented project had as main objective the proposal of an initial and permanent training plan to cover the specific competence needs of the new rural teachers. To achieve the objective que had proposed three main actions and specific objectives:

1. Identification and analysis of the specific rural teacher competences linked to the territorial dimension of the school (social and natural environment).
2. Identification and analysis of the latent knowledge present in the rural school related to the territorial dimension of the school (social and natural environment).
3. Elaboration of the proposal of an initial and permanent training plan.

Each of these objectives or actions has materialized in the intellectual products, together in a single document entitled ” FOPROMAR PROJECT, vocational training and the competences of rural teacher as a social motivator of the territorial dimension of the rural school”, available in: https://fopromar.wordpress.com/resultados/

This document includes:

– A report of the analysis of the domain and assessment of competences and knowledges in rural teachers.
– A report of the analysis of good practices related to competences and knowledges linked to the territorial dimension of rural school.
– A report on the status of initial and permanent training in each region.
– Initial and permanent training proposals.

In parallel to the intellectual products, 3 transnational (in-person) coordination meetings and three Learning, Teaching and Training Activities have been held between the member entities, one in each of the countries where the Project has developed.

Six multiplier events of the results have been held reaching the educational community (school and university) and the competent government administrations for education.

It has also been achieved that the project has positively impacted within the member entities themselves, as well as within third parties, the educational community and the general public.

Following the completion of the project, several sustainability activities have been planned:

-Participation in specialized international conferences.
-Publication of scientific articles in specialized journals.
-Follow-up of the implementation of training proposals by universities and the competent administration.
-Use of training proposals in new master’s degrees and within some elective subjects of the initial training plan by the universities involved.
– Organization of the “I Congress of Rural Education”, planned for the beginning of 2021.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 179114 Eur

Project Coordinator

FUNDACIÓ PRIVADA DEL MÓN RURAL & Country: ES

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITE DE LIMOGES
• UNIVERSIDAD DE ZARAGOZA
• UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA
• UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA
• Federació de Moviments de Renovació Pedagògica de Catalunya
• Faculdade de Psicologia da Universidade de Lisboa
• UNIVERSITE DE BORDEAUX