The spiritual countryside. Notes about decoloniality in rural education

Purpose The current essay visualizes colonial understandings, contrasts them with decolonial principles and skills and highlights the role of schools in building alternative images of the rural territory based on restoration and justice. Design/methodology/approach It is based on documentary research. Findings Colonial structures have shaped the world for centuries, establishing a distinct difference between Imperial and Global South countries. Unfortunately, they are normalized and with them, the violence and discrimination are preserved. The countryside has become an iconic symbol of peripherality because an urban judgment defines it as savage, undeveloped and opposite to the city’s progress. Rural people are victims of normalized violence. Decoloniality turns into a possible solution for rurality. This new paradigm can be explored in the schools of these lands as an opportunity to define itself and recover its cultural background. Research limitations/implications This research explores publications from 2015 to 2024, contrasting rural education understandings from different contexts. Practical implications It implies that rural education needs a new and vindictive epistemology to highlight its traditions and particular knowledges. Social implications It suggests a decolonial perspective as an alternative to rural problems. Originality/value This new paradigm can be explored in the schools of these lands as an opportunity to define itself and recover its cultural background.