Sofrimento docente: um estudo sobre afetos, vivências e enfrentamentos ético-políticos de professores de Instituições de Ensino Superior do Ceará

Abstract

Research on educators working in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) has shown that these professionals are constantly torn between their mission as educators, the quality of the educational training they offer to their students, and the demands of productivity and precarious labor conditions they experience from the commodification of education in the neoliberal context. These contradictory demands generate suffering among faculty members, who are often blamed for their own suffering. Mainstream psychology tends to translate this emotional distress as an organic or individual problem that affects their ability to handle contemporary teaching demands. Such a widespread perspective produces a sense of guilt in educators without examining neoliberal rationality. Given this context, in this research aims to understand the affective dimensions of educators in Higher Education Institutions from an ethical-political perspective, focusing on their forms of suffering and confrontations on the workplace their daily. More specifically, this research intends to: I) characterize the affective dimensions of educators from Higher Education Institutions regarding their work environment based on the concept of esteem of place; II) analyze the experience of relationships that make up the affective dimension of HEI educators regarding faculty work; III) identify ways in which educators from HEIs deal with situations in the workplace that cause suffering; and IV) reflect coping strategies developed by educators from HEIs. The framework developed in this research for analyzing the emotional relationship between the subjects and their workplace was based on a combination of Environmental, Social and Critical Psychology, from Historical-cultural perspectives. The methodology implemented was qualitative based on the creation of Affective Maps and Semi-Structured interviews with 58 educators from public and private HEIs, located in rural cities and the capital of Ceara (Brazil). The data and processed using Content Analysis. The results indicated that most educators experience their work environment through 10 conflicting and contradictory emotions.This dynamic in the HEI is based on articulations in broader contexts, such as the elaboration of Brazilian educational policies and geopolitical relations. These top-down demands caused numerous forms of faculty struggles. Faced with demands that cause them suffering, educators persist, resist and/or give up work, but these actions do not reveal themselves as ways of transforming the reality experienced. One of the main contributions of this work is to figure out high levels of politicization impact educators'affective dimensions toward their work, evidencing that the suffering of these professionals is not an the individual limitation, or a personal health issue but rather an expression of how the neoliberal agenda is producing oppression on the field of education keeping sometimes educators in a condition of servitude.