Understanding the emotional intelligence of the teacher in rural education

The emotional intelligence (EI) improves teacher activities; however, most of the about EI studies are focused on urban areas. The objective of this article is to understand the EI teaching in some rural areas of Antioquia, Colombia. The methodology is qualitative-exploratory with a structured questionnaire Mayer-Salovey-Caruso applied to 100 primary school teachers from rural areas. Teachers with greater emotional intelligence overcome the problems of rurality. They assume a role of guides with students and they promote teaching methodology with an open and flexible mind. In conclusion, the EI of rural teachers contributes to identify problems as open solutions to change from scarce resources, when they make use of their emotional intelligence.