Multigrade classrooms and circulation of knowledge: specification teaching of rural school's

The article presents outcomes and conclusions which derived from reflections on teaching practices conducted by rural schools teachers in multigrade classrooms in Uruguay during 2009 and 2010. These have led to a theoretical proposal that goes beyond the social specificity of rural schools and conceives the existence of multigrade classrooms as a determinant of particular educational settings which allow the possibility of circulation of knowledge. This movement involves creating teaching strategies that will, on certain occasions, allow breaking graded structures considering the multigrade structure as a unit. The heterogeneous characteristics of rural school groups derive on a number of teaching practices focused on diversity from a didactic point of view. The content organization becomes the foundation of the didactic scene in multigrade classrooms and groups, triggering circulation of knowledge mechanisms during teaching and learning processes. These, together with the curriculum content and production environments, are habitats where knowledge is expressed and recreated. The outcomes of these 'knowledge produced to knowledge learned' flows has become a necessary object of observation and theory generation in order to understand the dynamics, constraints and opportunities present in multigrade classrooms.