Teacher's role and scientific inquiry: Analysis of an experience about pests in a Chilean rural school

The incorporation of the scientific inquiry in rural science classrooms brings up important challenges for the teachers leading them. This current paper analyzes the importance of the teacher's role in a scientific inquiry activity. Therefore, an analysis was carried out in the case of the Mitigation of the whitefly in the ficus tree. This inquiring experience was applied with 22 sixth to eighth grade elementary students from a vulnerable rural school in Chile. The main results support that the students' learning through inquiry demands a guidance and an adequate support offered by the teacher. Besides, the case study shows how the inquiry-based science education can emerge from deprived rural contexts through inquiry.