Teaching Work: Social Representations in Teachers of a Public University

Abstract

Teaching work presents specification that is necessary to its comprehension, especially in the university context. Using as theoretical reference Marxist perspective (Marx, 1996; Lane, 1994), we try to investigate the professor work in a public university, since a case study with teachers of Psychology and Social Service courses from UNIFESP/Campus Baixada Santista – Santos/SP Brazil. The methodological procedure took place since electronic research and, afterward, with individual semi-structured and, audio-recorded interviews. To data analysis, we used the theory of social representations (Moscovici, 2003; Spink, 1993) and, Discourse Analysis (Charaudeau and Maingueneau, 2004; Freire, 2006; Orlandi, 1999). We understood that teaching work is marked by contradictions that touch the abilities and the competences demanded in contemporaneousness, the scrapping of public university, the educational politics and, the precariousness of work relations. The professor feels himself/herself in an deadlock: the university represents at the same time an emancipator and an alienator context.