Pleasure and suffering at work: a study about elementary school teachers participant in a university level educational program

Abstract

Teacher’s work demands the establishment of an emotional/affectionate link, especially for those who work in elementary and middle school. Being this link one of the conditions for the effectiveness of teacher’s work, it also represents a potential source of suffering because of its incomplete nature in face of the work relational structure. Dejours studies about work psychological suffering points the building of collective strategies to deal with this process. The objective of this research was to identify and analyze the mains sources of pleasure and psychological suffering in teacher’s work in elementary and middle school, participant in the Special Teacher Education Program of the Public System (PEFD), problematizing the requirement of professional training in the university level as well as the multiple demands to the “teacher-student”. In a qualitative approach, the research involved thirty-two individuals. It showed, as a result, that the main source of pleasure in the work field relates to the task of educating and to the emotional exchange with the students. The principal sources of psychological suffering are: student’s parent’s absence and violence associated with precarious social conditions; and disadvantage professional salaries. The desire of studying in the School of Education seemed to facilitate the adjustment to the student’s tasks. The professional self-valorizations were the collective strategy identified to reduce the suffering originated form the depreciation of the teacher’s profession.