The aim of this text is to analyze the influence of educational policies on teachers' contexts and work. Based on a body of empirical information gathered from two investigation projects, it was possible to describe modalities by means of which teachers manage their professional suffering. The same data enabled a characterization of a set of "defensive professional ideologies", as well as tensions existing among the figures of young people and students frequenting a particular set of secondary schools in Portugal. The effects of current educational policies in reinforcing the alienation and exploitation of teaching work will be analyzed on the basis of this body of empirical information.
teachers; identity; labour; educational policies