Abstract

GARCIA, Maria Manuela Alves  and  ANADON, Simone Barreto. Educational reform, intensification of teacher's work and self-exploitation. Educ. Soc. [online]. 2009, vol.30, n.106, pp. 63-85. ISSN 0101-7330.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0101-73302009000100004.

This study problematizes eight biographical accounts of public elementary school teachers in Capão do Leão, a small town in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It strives to contribute to understand better the transformations in teachers' work embedded in the late 20^th century educational reform policies by establishing a dialogue among the following analytical categories: governmentality, intensification of teachers' work, care and gender. The intensification of teachers' work and self-exploitation is driven by: the precarious working conditions of elementary school teachers; low salaries; new administrative, curricular and instructional demands; official policies for teacher "professionalization"; and an official discourse that promotes norms of individual responsibility and guilt and aims to govern the subjectivity and emotions of teachers.

Keywords : Educational reform; Teachers' work; Intensification; Self-exploitation.