Countryside education

between political expansion and the Neoliberal State

Abstract

The advancement of education policies in the countryside are currently the focus of attention. If, on one hand, they consolidate access to education for people living in the country, on the other, it has been noted that these policies are difficult to materialize as they are directly related to neoliberalism in Brazil. The goal is to investigate how the neoliberal movement falls within the field of education in the countryside. This is, therefore, a descriptive-exploratory study, drawing on a qualitative approach, conducted from literature review. It has been shown that few studies point to the relationship between the neoliberal movement and the impact on education policies in the country since authors rarely approach these topics directly. Studies indicate that there has been an improvement in educational rights focused on country education, although neoliberal processes such as the decentralization of education, the absence of government investments, the closing of country schools, the inefficiency in reaching out to young people and adults living in the country and the expansion of agribusiness have also been intensified, which prevent education in the countryside from consolidating. Therefore, it is necessary to maximize workers’ struggles so that they can expose the contradictions of the Neoliberal State and fight for the consolidation of education policies.