This paper focus on a research aimed at identifying the representations of the professional identity of teachers of public schools of Rio de Janeiro in face of the challenges posed to the schools in contemporary times. We adopted the structural approach of the social representations proposed by Abric. Data were collected using a free association test with justification and treated by the software EVOC. The participants of the study were 248 subjects, from which 123 teachers of 1st to 4th grade and 125 of 5th to 8th grade. Results indicated significant differences between the representations of the two groups, reflected in the configurations of their central nuclei: In the first group, the nucleus is comprised by a single element - dedication -, although in the close periphery, the term tiresome appears. As to the second group, the terms difficulties and struggle, are distinguished as components of the central nucleus. It was concluded that the teachers of the first grades construct the meaning of being a teacher today around a nucleus traditionally associated to the teaching role, while for those of the 5th to 8th, being a teacher today is to struggle daily against the several difficulties that lie between them and their students.
Social representations; Teacher identity; Teacher's work
