Brasiliana: Journal for Brazilian Studies (Oct 2024)
The subject of the next semester and the manufacturing of teaching work in private higher education in Brazil
Abstract
Objective: To discuss “discipline” as a multidimensional and peculiar component in the study of the fabrication of teaching work in private higher education institutions in Brazil. Method: quantitative and qualitative research with 65 respondents (higher education professors) from Belém do Pará (metropolis in the Amazon), through interviews and statistical sample to analyze the discipline at work, either as an area of knowledge taught by a professor and/or observance strict adherence to present rules, under the context of “flexible management” (adaptable to changes in links, processes, content and work execution). Results: the research identified an increase in professional and subjective demands for the permanence of professors in the Institution: 1) in the acquisition of new skills, abilities and administrative tasks; 2) greater involvement in educational and institutional activities and; 3) discipline with deadlines and use of institutional performance indicators, which translate the acute process into forms of co-option, control, exploitation and present uncertainties. Conclusion: work management assumes the role of a competitive game that urges individualism, the performer capable of competition, the modeling of a type of teaching worker: obedient, market professional, without political-social involvement, of a self-manager. Limitations: resistance from private higher education institutions to authorize research access to professors' workspaces and observation of managers and professors' daily work.