ABSTRACT:
This article presents part of the results of a study on the current gender configurations in the work of teachers in the initial years of fundamental education, which have been historically associated to femininity and practices of care. New forms of management implemented by Brazilian public administration since the end of the 1990s have put this model into question, by requiring from male and female educators alike attitudes based not only on a market logic, but also on values that are largely associated to a kind of masculinity, such as individualism, competitiveness, focus on career progress, and monetary reward. To investigate if those movements have led to the effacement of historical marks of femininity associated to the work of female teachers in the first years of education, we have conducted a qualitative study in the public school system of the state of São Paulo, which indicated the permanence of references to a femininity, albeit re-signified and contradictorily integrated to the new managerialism policies.
Keywords:
Teaching; Gender; Primary school; New managerialism; Care