Os sentidos do agir docente em língua portuguesa no contexto de mudanças no ensino médio

Abstract

This dissertation investigated the personal senses attributed to teaching by Portuguese Language teachers working in the state school system of Santa Catarina, Brazil, within the context of educational reforms resulting from Law No. 13,415/2017, the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC), and Law No. 14,945/2024. The study was guided by the following research question: What personal senses do Portuguese Language teachers attribute to their teaching activity in the context of changes in upper secondary education? Grounded in Historical-Dialectical Materialism and Cultural-Historical Psychology, this study aimed to analyze how the social meanings and personal senses that guide teachers' activity have been produced and transformed within a context marked by educational policies that emphasize student agency and competency-based education. The analysis was based on the works of Vygotsky, Leontiev, Luria, Duarte, Asbahr, Saviani, and Facci, highlighting that teaching activity is shaped by material and ideological conditions and plays a fundamental role in human formation. To recover elements concerning the historical development of changes in upper secondary education, the study first presented a contextual analysis based on official documents and legislation that authorized reforms in this stage of Basic Education beginning in 2017. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews with four Portuguese Language teachers who have been teaching in Brazilian upper secondary education for at least ten years and who previously served as supervisors in the Institutional Scholarship Program for Teaching Initiation (PIBID). The analytical process proceeded from concrete reality, apprehending its contradictions in order to grasp its essence. The findings indicate that the personal senses attributed to teaching activity are constituted through social relations, concrete working conditions, and each teacher's historical experiences. Regarding the social meanings historically produced concerning the social function of education and teaching activity, the analysis demonstrated their relationship with the participants' life trajectories and professional experiences. Furthermore, reforms in upper secondary education have transformed the teacher’s role, as discontinuities in educational policies generate instability in pedagogical practices and intensify fragmentation and alienation in teaching work, continuously transforming the personal senses of teaching within the social and historical relations of educational work.