This article analyses research projects which deal with education in the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), defended in postgraduate programmes in education in Brazil, highlighting the theoretical-methodological approaches which they employ. The theme education and rural social movements is discussed based on authors like Arroyo, Campos, Gohn, Sposito, Beserra and Damasceno. It demonstrates that the research projects present issues/subjects that have a close relation with the social-educational practices existent in the social movement. It reveals the need for dialogue between the different areas of knowledge, especially education and sociology. It makes use of a qualitative approach and substantiates the analyses in dialectic and historical materialism, especially in the characterization of the MST as an expression of class.
research; education; rural and social movements