The Lived Experience of Teachers in Rural Contexts

Abstract

This study aims to understand the lived experiences of nine rural teachers in Antioquia, Colombia. The research stems from the importance of the voices and experiences of teachers who live and work in rural areas for understanding the educational phenomenon in this particular context. Using a qualitative approach grounded in hermeneutic phenomenology, the study employed semi-structured interviews to examine the pedagogical practices, instructional strategies, and contextual challenges that rural teachers encounter in their daily work. The results show that rural educators develop a situated understanding of their territory, allowing them to broadly comprehend the context they inhabit, including the recognition of others in all their otherness and humanity. The use and adaptation of the Escuela Nueva model becomes one of the most recurrent and accepted strategies for multi-grade classrooms. Furthermore, it highlights the complex realities of rural life, such as armed conflict, illiteracy, deficient infrastructure, and urban-rural educational inequality, in response to which they deploy creative and resilient strategies. It was identified that the pedagogical relationship in these contexts forms a triadic framework between family, teacher, and student, based on horizontal dialogue and the appreciation of local knowledge. The findings demonstrate that the rural teacher’s role is that of a transformative community agent, promoting critical pedagogies oriented toward intellectual emancipation.