This article describes analyses made concerning the objective working conditions of teachers, as related to the school space, to the difficulties they face in dealing with the students, to the existence or otherwise of autonomy in the conduction of their daily tasks, and to the establishment of hierarchies in the relationships within the school. It represents part of the results obtained during the development of a doctoral research. The data were collected in 2005 through semi-structured interviews with ten teachers from the first cycle of Fundamental Education at two public schools of the State of São Paulo, and also with principals, coordinators, parents and pupils. The analysis of teachers' working conditions made it clear that this function has little social prestige. Nevertheless, in spite of being socially undervalued and of the difficult objective conditions to which they are subjected, such as lack of autonomy to carry out their work, teachers believe that teaching has value, not only because of the economic gains from their salaries, but mainly as a function of the symbolic asset represented by the distinctive role they play in the relations established inside the school. Besides, being a teacher represented the concrete elevation of their cultural assets, considering their families of origin.
School culture; Teacher's habitus; Teaching function; School space