This project is an Association of 6 partners, the Fundación del Mundo Rural, the University of Barcelona, the University of Zaragoza, the University of Lisbon, the University of Limoges and the Federation of Movements of Educational Renewal, which aims to strengthen the competences of the rural teacher and its initial and permanent training. 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. In this scenario, many of the changes suffered by rural societies pass through rural school and their teachers because the school is part of the institutional system of the State, because it concentrates social diversity, creates new social capital and, is therefore, 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, need specific skills and a lifelong learning plan adapted to the reality of their work scenario which permits: 1) have work tools in particular cases of the rural school as , for example, the multi-graded classroom (pupils of different ages). 2) Have the necessary tools to generate different learning scenarios by taking advantage of the natural and social environment of the school and its social proximity and 3) have the necessary tools to act as "social motivator" which takes into account the territorial school dimension, when the teacher has to deal with the school social functions. The project presented has as a main objective the proposal of an initial and permanent training plan to cover the specific competence needs of the new rural teachers. We propose three main actions that marked the way to the proposed training plan: 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. These results will be spread through the educational community and the University network to get a better education for the rural teachers, more adapted to the needs of the rural areas
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.