The closure of multigrade schools in rural territories

This article presents a qualitative approach to the state of the art regarding the closure of multigrade schools in rural areas. We mapped studies on the closure of these schools identified in the platforms of the Catalog of Theses and Dissertations of the Office to Coordinate Improvement of Higher Level Personnel (CAPES) and the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTD), in the period from 2005 to 2022, to shed light on contemporary tensions and discussions in the scientific production in general, and the state of the art in the field of rural education in particular. These searches identified a total of 10 such dissertations/theses in the two databases. These were read with the support of the IRaMuTeQn software and classified according to maximum approximation to the theme of “closure of multigrade schools in rural territories.” The results indicated fragility of research involving closure of multigrade schools in master’s programs in the country and the need for ongoing research in doctoral programs.