Abstract

LANDINI, Fernando. Paraguayan rural extensionists' training needs from the perspective of  their function, their problems and their interests. Trab. soc. [online]. 2013, n.20, pp.149-160. ISSN 1514-6871.

It is essential to discuss the contents and the methodologies used to train rural extensionists, many times exclusively focused on technical knowledge and conducted in a traditional and hierarchical way. Thus, in this paper, analyzing the results of interviews I conducted in Paraguay, I describe the training needs of the Paraguayan rural extensionists studying their function, the problems they face and their own training desires. Besides, I study the results of a national survey to analyze in a quantitative way their training desires, the preferred methodology to be trained and the relationship between these and other variables. I conclude that the training needs of rural extensionists exceed technical contents, including knowledge related to commercialization, methodology of rural extension, group coordination and participatory techniques. Additionally, I also highlight that the contests prioritized by the extensionists surveyed as well as the preferred methodologies to be trained are distributed unevenly by sex, employment status, education, age and experience in rural extension. Finally, I also mention that the rural extensionists expect trainings to articulate theory and practice and to include moments for reflection and group dialogue.

Keywords : Training; Rural extensionists; Complex approach; Paraguay.

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