Abstract: This paper aimed to understand the representations produced by rural teachers in Uberlândia, State of Minas Gerais, and by the local elites about the rural and urban areas, rural schools, teachers and students. We examined newspapers, minutes of both the legislative sector and rural schools, textbooks, booklets, school notebooks, photographs and narratives of six teachers. The results allowed us to understand how these representations contributed to the hybrid role assumed by rural teachers as follows: sometimes elected as agents of civilization, sometimes discredited. Ambiguity that also permeated the rural school, formally instituted as a space to civilize the rural man, but paradoxically it was a nucleus of resistance and culture.
Keywords:
rural school teacher; students; elites