Largely rural areas are characterized by being spaces with low population density, however, a new phenomenon of return to rural areas is beginning to emerge from returnees -immigrants or neo-rural people- drawn by business opportunities of the area- (Bustos, 2011). This phenomenom is reactivating the social, demographic and economic development of some of these areas and that are reconfiguring the rural environment. This increase in the population resident in rural contexts has a positive influence on the conservation of rural schools.
In the case of Andalusia (Spain), schools located in rural settings are subject to the same regulations as schools located in urban settings, however, they have a series of peculiarities inherent to the contexts in which they are immersed (Olivares, 2007), such as the dispersed population in the areas and the low concentration of schoolchildren. This fact makes it necessary to implement a school organization such as the multigrade classroom, becoming one of the hallmarks of rural schools. Its characteristics and pedagogical and organizational singularities make it a particular and heterogeneous educational and school space.
The school organization in multi-grade, multi-level, inter-level, mixed classrooms, shared levels, multi-age or multi-class (Bustos, 2010, 2013), has become a peculiarity, a symbol and an organizational response to that rurality (Boix and Bustos, 2014; Bustos, 2010; Boix, 2011; Corchón, 2000). However, and although multigrade is associated as “the most unique feature of the rural school” (Boix and Bustos, 2014, p. 32), this way of organizing the classroom is not exclusive to the so-called rural schools, as we also find other schools located in urban contexts that are organized in multigrade classrooms (Ruiz and Ruiz, 2017), as a way of organizing, operating and maintaining schools (Sepúlveda and Gallardo, 2011) that have low levels of enrollment (Bustos, 2010).
As Jiménez (1983) points out, these classrooms are characterized mainly because “in the same class there are boys and girls of different ages and levels of schooling” (p.13), it means, we find: the combination of levels and grades in the same classroom (Quílez & Vázquez, 2012; Cantón, 2004; Hinojo, Raso & Hinojo, 2010; Bustos, 2010, 2013); students with different levels of knowledge are served; teachers work with a student / teacher low ratio (Canton, 2004; Sauras, 2000); and, it approaches the most natural way of meeting and working among schoolchildren (Abós & Boix, 2017) as an educative opportunity.
As it is pointed out by Quílez and Vázquez (2012), we find mainly two types of multigrade classrooms on behalf of the organizational level and depending on the number of students: the “unit classrooms”, in which students of different educational degrees are with a single teacher in the classroom and then in the school (Ortega, 1995; Boix & Bustos, 2014), and the "incomplete graduate classrooms", in which there are several educational levels where we find a teacher per classroom.
Through open interviews and discussion groups we recover the voices of primary and secondary school teachers who develop their practice in schools located in rural settings with the main objective of knowing the potential and weaknesses of multigrade classrooms from various teaching experiences in Andalucia. This concrete proposal is designed according to the literature and the state of the question, it is necessary to understand and disseminate this type of school experience for the commitment to rural development. Also, it is necessary to open a way to compare and discuss with other rural schools in other European countries, of which we highlight the following research experiences: EU Comission (2011), Champollion (2011), Amiguinho (2011).