BETWEEN DISCOURSE AND REALITY – THE VALORIZATION OF TEACHING WORK UNDER THE LOGIC OF THE MINIMAL STATE AND THE ORDER OF CAPITAL

Abstract

This research performs a critical analysis of the contradictions between the official discourse of valuing the teaching work and the concrete practices adopted by the State under the neoliberal logic. By investigating the impacts of educational reforms and austerity policies, it is evident how the valorization of teaching has been instrumentalized by a rhetoric that hides the progressive dismantling of labor rights, the intensification of control over pedagogical practice and the precariousness of working conditions. That said, the question that guides this research is the following: In what way is the official discourse of valuing the teaching work used to legitimize policies of dismantling, controlling, and precariousness of teaching in the context of the neoliberal State? For this, we used as theoretical repertoire the works of Gramsci (1999; 2000; 2001), Althusser (1970), Saviani (1980; 2008; 2013), Nóvoa (1995), Frigotto (1995), Laval (2003; 2014; 2019), Apple (2006; 2019), Ball (1994; 2005; 2008), Feldfeber and Oliveira (2008), Antunes (2009), Biesta (2010; 2013), Martins and Duarte (2010), Robertson et. al. (2012), Hargreaves and Fullan (2012), Giroux (2014; 2014), as well as the norms: LDB, PNE, BNCC and FUNDEB. The research is qualitative (Minayo, 2007), descriptive and bibliographic (Gil, 2008) and with comprehensive analysis (Weber, 1949). The results showed that the discourse of teacher valorization has been appropriated by the neoliberal State as an instrument to legitimize reforms that deepen the control, precariousness and individual accountability of teachers. The mismatch between the official rhetoric and the concrete working conditions was verified, revealing a process of emptying pedagogical autonomy. The educational policies analyzed operate under a technocratic logic that dehumanizes the teaching practice and weakens the public school as a space for social emancipation.