The centrality given to teachers in the ongoing educational reforms creates new professional demands that affect their health. Seeking results in the literature on epidemiology and ergonomics, this paper suggests relations between the work intensification process in schools and the types of teachers' illnesses described in current studies. With regard to work intensification, mention is made of both qualitative factors, characterized by changes in activities without the necessary social support to accommodate work requirements, and quantitative factors such as increased work loads in schools. Evidence presented in the text allows for a first explanatory model for the teacher morbidity process, based on environmental and organizational determinants, and their implications for classroom work activities.
Work Intensification; Worker health; Teaching work; Teacher