Pleasure and suffering in teaching: a study in the stricto sensu graduate program

Abstract

This is a descriptive study, quantitative and qualitative, whose objective was to identify the situations that generate pleasure and suffering for teaching staff in the postgraduate stricto sensu course. Forty seven teachers from seven programs participated, who responded to the Inventory on Work and Illness Risks, and an interview. Pleasure and suffering from teaching were influenced by aspects such as professional training time, degree held, number of hours worked, and whether or not the teacher acted as course coordinator. Many teachers resort to the use of medicines to mediate suffering, which is influenced by the intensification, overload, and bureaucratization of work, lack of dialogue, organizational pressures, and the limits of recognition. However, relationships, the possibility of transforming or influencing realities and professional identity are considered propellant aspects of pleasure at work. It is concluded that the distance between pleasure and suffering among postgraduate teaching staff is tenuous, with repercussions on their physical and psychological health.

Keywords

• pleasure
• suffering
• faculty
• psychodynamics of work