Mal-estar docente: um olhar para o professor universitário

Abstract

The study proposed here brings forward the possibility of an investigation about a group of teachers from the Federal University of Santa Maria Education Center, where the formation of future teachers takes place. The impact of the teacher’s malaise within the teaching initiation may be a factor to have redoubled attention, since future teachers of the public/private networks, whether in basic education or higher education, are being trained now, on our university. This study has as focus the teacher’s malaise, investigating and deepening how the significant working conditions degradation has impacted the pedagogical work. The general objective of this research is to understand the malaise of the university professor, which is present in the daily teaching work; as specific objectives, it was sought to recognize the university professor's professional trajectory, having as perspective the teaching activity. The characterization of teacher malaise, according to Esteve (1992), refers to the negative effects of the teaching profession conditions over a teacher's personality. Since it is a broad concept, it includes other more specific concepts, such as dissatisfaction, disinvestment, unaccountability in the teaching work context, the desire to abandon teaching altogether, absenteeism, burnout, anxiety, stress, neurosis and depression. Thus, to understand the transformation processes of the individuals involved in the research, the sociocultural approach was chosen, as it is a type of qualitative analysis that focuses its attention on the collective construction of processes, considering the subjectivity of the individual” (BOLZAN, 2002, p.70). Through the narratives it is possible to establish exchanges between researcher and interviewee, supporting the process of reflection and transformation of individuals throughout the dialogue. That way allows us to know the main challenges faced by professors within the public university, as well as to reflect about how the teacher's malaise affects the professor's work. Considering the dimensions explored in the study and the transversal axis, it is possible to state that the teacher needs an institutional space in which he/she can develop a culture of collaboration and sharing, mitigating pedagogical loneliness and promoting feelings of well-being, of listening and care, which will reflect consequently in their educational context, feeding back, motivating and enhancing the work environment. In this way, we were able to think about the issues related to teacher illness and list possibilities in order to mitigate the illness of this professional, emphasizing that this study is not definitive, but rather a micro-understanding that brings the possibility of being deepened.