O processo de envelhecimento docente: subjetivação em tempos de biopolítica

Abstract

The present work constitutes a qualitative study on the influence of professional identity in the process of teacher aging, through the vision of biopolitics. The problem that will be addressed in this dissertation is the general objective of this research, which is to analyze how the aspects that constitute the professional identity of teachers interfere in the aging process, from a biopolitical perspective. The specific objectives that will lead to the attainment of this general objective were defined as: investigating the constitution of the professional teacher identity; to analyze the aging process of the teacher and to identify possible consequences of interference of professional identity in the processes of teacher aging, from the perspective of biopolitics. The social relevance of this research is the contribution to the understanding of how the aging process of the teacher takes place, as well as to provide elements for the elaboration and analysis of institutional policies related to retirement at the High Education Institution researched. Hermeneutics is the methodological conception that will guide this research, which has the speech of the subjects as an expression of the experience lived inside and outside the educational institution. The unit to be studied, through the methodological strategy of the case study, is the process of teacher aging in an institution of higher education in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, a complex theme related to contemporary challenges. In order to support the case study, it was decided to work with the focal group as a technique for collecting the data to be analyzed. The corpus of the research was constituted of three groups of teachers of the research institution: a group composed of teachers in the exercise of the teaching activity and in the process of preparation for retirement; another group formed by retired teachers, but still in the exercise of the profession; and a last group of retired teachers, who are not working any more at the institution, which gave rise to the three focus groups that took place in the research. Foucault, Esposito, Ruiz, Debert, Camarano, Neri, Baltes, Nóvoa and Stano were some of the authors studied to support the understanding of the references that underpinned this work: aging, teacher identity, biopolitics and subjectivation. Three major categories were identified: Becoming a teacher, Life in teaching at the High Education Institution, and Life after teaching. depict what really had and has value for these people who carry with them the teaching identity. The results found point to the need for higher education institutions to clarify the policies regarding the closure of the teaching career, to be transparent about these definitions and to reformulate the preparation programs for leaving the institution in a way that works specifically with the aspects that differentiate the teacher of the other professionals, directing to what will really be missed after leaving the institution, which was identified as the permanent and intense relationship with the students and with the knowledge, factors that influenced, as pointed out by the research, the quality of the aging process.