Work as an Educational Principle at the Vila Pavão State Integrated Center for Rural Education in Espírito Santo

Abstract

This article analyzes work as an educational principle based on the experience of the Centro Estadual Integrado de Educação Rural de Vila Pavão (CEIER-VP), located in the northwestern region of the state of Espírito Santo, seeking to understand how this category materializes in pedagogical practices and what tensions emerge in the contemporary context of Rural Education. Grounded in theoretical frameworks that articulate work, human formation and rural pedagogies, the study adopted a qualitative approach, with documentary analysis, application of questionnaires to students and interviews with teachers and administrators. The data were organized through content analysis, allowing the identification of elements that evidence both the historical centrality of work in the institution's formative proposal and the contradictions present in its current organization. The results indicate that work remains as a structuring axis of educational practices, especially in activities related to agroecology and the diversified part of the curriculum, contributing to the construction of collective meanings and to the valorization of rural knowledge. However, pedagogical tensions were also observed related to institutional changes, normative demands and social transformations that impact the school's identity, configuring a scenario of reconfiguration of the educational proposal. It is concluded that work as an educational principle, far from constituting a static category, reveals itself as a field of pedagogical disputes and reinventions, reaffirming the need to strengthen educational projects committed to human formation and to the reality of rural subjects.