ACADEMIC MONITORING IN RURAL EDUCATION

EXPERIENCE REPORT FROM A GRADUATE OF THE UFMG TEACHING DEGREE PROGRAM

Abstract

Academic monitoring plays a relevant role in the training of future teachers in various areas, by providing a more direct and meaningful contact with the practice of teaching. In this sense, this article aims to report the experience of a master's student as a monitor in the Bachelor's degree in Rural Education (LECampo) at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), within the scope of the Incentive Program for Teacher Training. From this experience – also crossed by the condition of graduate of the course –, we seek to reflect on the contributions of monitoring in teacher training, in strengthening the commitment to public education and the principles of Rural Education. The report was built from the analysis of personal files, such as work plans prepared during the monitoring, records in field notebooks and reflections produced throughout the development of various activities, such as the monitoring of Course Completion Papers, Working Groups, participation in defense boards, guidance in the production of scientific texts and mediation in various pedagogical processes. The peasant identity of the author emerges as an element that contributed to the understanding of the specificities of the subjects in the field. Monitoring, in this context, is understood as a space for training, resistance and political affirmation, which contributes to the construction of fairer, contextualized and transformative educational practices. The study reinforces the importance of valuing monitoring as a pedagogical, formative and experimentation instrument of teaching in higher education, especially in courses aimed at training teachers for Rural Education.