Dropouts in the Bachelor's Degree in Rural Education: interrupted trajectories and the challenges of permanence

This article presents the main results of qualitative research conducted using an ethnocartographic methodology, combined with interviews and an online questionnaire directed at students of the Bachelor's Degree in Rural Education – Natural Sciences at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. We provide data from interviews and questionnaires sent to students who left the course, seeking to understand their motivations, and to students who graduated by 2022, in order to map the conditions that supported their persistence in the program. The ethnocartographic method allowed us to revisit the student profile, present the main reasons for students leaving the course between 2015 and 2020, and link dropout rates to the university’s retention policies. We also mapped the profile of graduates. As a result, we highlight that a large number of students dropped out of the course because they could not benefit from these policies, either because they did not qualify for social or quota-based programs, or because they could not forgo work and its demands. The graduate profile showed that most students who entered through social or racial quotas were able to graduate and enter the job market, although many are not teaching in rural schools.