Neoliberal forces and the constitution of the mathematics teacher who always seeks to do something different

Abstract

This article problematizes the discourses of Mathematics teachers about the constant need to do something different when teaching. In this article, we seek the questions: “What contemporary discourses support the teaching movement that always seeks to do something different in teaching? What relationships do they have with neoliberalism?” For this purpose, interviews were carried out with Mathematics teachers in schools in Novo Hamburgo, a metropolitan region of Porto Alegre, Brazil. The analysis of the results took place from a Foucauldian perspective of discourse analysis. We observed that the statements present reverberations of a neoliberal logic and that the concept of “doing differently” is often associated with innovation and that they seek to break with already consolidated teaching approaches. We understand this break with educational practices as one of the results of the subjectivation of teachers by a neoliberal logic and a logic of fluidity that has instantaneity and short term as necessary characteristics to meet current market demands. It was possible to notice that the idea of the movement of “doing different” expressed in the teachers' statements is driven by the search for student motivation and, as a consequence of this process, there is the teacher's motivation. We also observed in the statements that the teachers live a regime of self-coercion and self-blame, as they blame themselves when they cannot do different and they live a regime of self-exploitation, as they demonstrated that they voluntarily submit to a work regime in which they require a great effort from themselves in the search of maximizing its performance.