This text proposes to discuss the weight of the representations relating to the exercise of the teaching profession and its historic roots, in the light of recent research on the work of basic school teachers in Brazil (pre-school, primary and secondary school teachers) and the training they receive on their teacher's courses, paying special attention to the period when education systems have been created, because they generate paradigms that persist today. Also discussed is the intersection of factors that bring about changes in the work and training of teachers and imply the need for redefining the professional characteristics of their action in view of the transformations that have taken place in the social function of the school in the present days. To do so the following aspects are considered: the entry of teachers who come from a lower class background to higher education and the regressive nature of public policies; social exclusion and educational conditions in schools that are becoming universal; the new students that arrive at school and teachers/students relation standards. These standards are related with cultural and cognitive aspects that have to do with attention to diversity, changes in power relations between generations and different and contemporary ways of appropriating culture by social actors in school.
teachers; profissionalization; teachers education