This thesis discusses aspects of rural education in the state of Minas Gerais, focussing on teachers and schools in the town of Campo das Vertentes. The guiding questions for the study were: What is the history of rural education in Minas Gerais?; What is the current situation with respect to the education offered to children and young adults who live in rural areas? Consequently, the main purpose of the study was to (re)build and map the current picture of rural education in Minas Gerais, based on the pressuposition that we need to know the past in order to understand the present. The following procedures were chosen: 1) a review of the literature on the history of rural education in Brazil, in general, and Minas Gerais in particular; 2) a survey of official data and documents, offered by official organizations, with a view to mapping the real picture of rural education in Minas Gerais; and 3) analysis of data collected on visits to the schools and interviews with teachers. The precarious structure of the institutions, the difficulties students have in getting to school, the lack of relationship between the content of the text books used and the rural reality of the students, together with the difficulty students have in accessing the final stages of elementary and high school education, are indicated as the principal historical problems with respect to students. With respect to teachers, the main aspect discussed in this study is the quality and appropriateness of their professional training, especially in relation to the education of men and women from rural communities, their relationship with the land and their knowledge.