Curso de Agricultor Familiar: possíveis aproximações com a Educação Popular e a Educação do Campo

This article presents a research carried out on the execution of the Family Farmer Course, delivered in different municipalities around Farroupilha Federal Institute - Santo Augusto Campus, in 2013 and 2014, with the objective of identifying its characteristics and possible similarities with Popular Education and Rural Education. A qualitative bibliographic and documentary review was used as methodology. We started from the hypothesis that, for courses run by public institutions to meet the objectives of Popular and Rural Educations, there must be an articulation between the Extension project and the rural workers involved. We conducted our analysis based on the following questions: Are there theoretical references in the Pedagogical Project that indicate a commitment to Popular Education? What can be extracted from the Project in relation to the demands of Rural Education? Finally, what are the nature and scope of the Campus institutional involvement with family farmers, through the Research and Extension Department and the extension projects? We identified limitations of the Extension project when taking into account the needs for dialogue with rural workers and progressive aspects in the basic training space of the Pedagogical Course Project, which allowed reflections in class.