As condições de trabalho docente e o processo saúde-doença: significados e experiências

Abstract

The teachers’ working conditions and their experiences in the basic public education network in Brazil were impacted by the educational reforms implemented in the 1990s, with a strong influence of neoliberal policy and globalization. As a result of this influence, there was a precariousness of public education and implementation of school management in basic education. Repercussions of this educational setting, characterized by a high demand of tasks, with terrible conditions for carrying out the work and devaluation of the teaching career, it has been affecting the teacher's life story and often caused illnesses in this working class. Therefore, a production of teacher’s malaise is constant, characterized by frustration, lack of motivation and even career abandonment. In this context, the aim of this study was to understand the processes involved in relation to health-disease of teachers in the basic education of public schools from Montes Claros-MG, based on experiences and working conditions. This thesis was conducted with the production of three interrelated but distinct studies. The first study is an integrative literature review, which aimed to conduct a bibliographic survey on the use of Grounded Theory as a methodology in research in the health area between the years 2015 and 2020, in Brazil. The search was carried out in the electronic databases SciELO, LILACS and CAPES Periodicals. The descriptors Grounded Theory and health were used. Initially, 1,102 publications were obtained, submitted to the eligibility criteria, which resulted in 29 articles and were selected to proceed with the study. From the results, the analysis highlighted that, for the most part, the selected articles used the Straussian perspective of Grounded Theory. The second and third studies are qualitative research, based on the Symbolic Interactionism method, which presented the main purpose of elaborating assumptions, or a theory related to the illness of Basic Education teachers in the public school system, through the Theory method Grounded in Data (Grounded Theory). This research adopted the social constructionist perspective of Grounded Theory, proposed by Charmaz. 19 basic education teachers from state schools were interviewed and their interviews were initially analyzed as the basis for the first qualitative article. For the construction of the theory, interviews with 12 professors, in the analysis process, produced codifications that resulted in seven axial categories, which seek to elucidate the theoretical assumptions of this investigation. The illness of the basic education teacher involves multifactorial processes and causes. The data from this study indicated the precariousness of teaching work in public education, with state restrictions and management deficiency (a reflection of neoliberal policies), it has been causing a serious teacher malaise. This teacher malaise has been caused by tensions in the school community, by mismatches in teaching practice, by the experiences of repercussions on their personal lives caused by work, by the experiences of repercussions at work caused by the teachers’ personal lives, culminating in the processes of professional illnesses. It is necessary to detach the importance of public policies implementing aimed at promoting the teacher’s basic health in Brazilian public schools, as well as a satisfactory investment in the public education sector in this country.