Quando ensinar não é o mais importante: reflexões sobre o trabalho docente e o ofício de aluno no contexto atual

Abstract

The purpose of the present article is to analyze some of the aspects of teachers ́ work and students’ role in the context of deep contemporary changes. The work was developed through theoretical support in authors who discuss in recent studies the issue raised in this article. Whenever possible examples are given about some aspects of the educational policy employed in two Brazilian states, the state of Goiás and the state of São Paulo. The analysis focuses three dimensions. The first dimension is related to the changes in the state’s role and their impact on the educational field, focusing the movement of ‘responsibilization’ and ‘deresponsabilization’ and management. The second dimension refers to teachers’ work, pointing out the education, working conditions and the meaning teaching nowadays have. The third and last one refers specifically to students and the new situations that students have been facing, especially the change from being a client or a consumer, as well as the great array of work market demands and its impact on school. At the end of the article, I raise the hypothesis that the process, in which education has gone through in a society moved by profit, can lead to meaningful changes in the teaching process and in the ethics that guide teachers ́ work.