SUGESTÃO DE LEITURA:Aspects of resistance in teaching practice

Educação e Pesquisa

versão impressa ISSN 1517-9702

Educ. Pesqui., ahead of print Epub 12-Maio-2015

http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/s1517-97022015051679 

ARTICLES

Aspects of resistance in teaching practice

Almir Martins Vieira ¹ , Octavio Ribeiro de Mendonça Neto ² , Maria Thereza Pompa Antunes ²

¹Universidade Metodista de São Paulo, São Bernardo do Campo, SP, Brasil. Contact:

²Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, São Paulo, SP, Brasil. Contact:

ABSTRACT

This study addresses behavior deviations that professors use to resist the management models of Brazilian universities; this resistance is made clear by assessing teaching performance in Brazilian universities. We used Foucault’s concepts (1975) of surveillance and control mechanisms as well as Hodson’s work (1995) on the relationship between power and resistance in daily professional life. Most teaching institutions do not collaboratively construct projects that are devoted to changes in institutional practices, nor do they collaboratively implement mechanisms such as information and education management systems. Besides meeting financial objectives, these systems include resources that equip teaching activities with “transparency and calculability.” Recurring forms of resistance to these measures can be observed in the Brazilian academic environment, notably in private institutions. Among these forms or resistance, a notable form is the use of humor as a way of expressing discontent and even ridicule of management discourse and its control mechanisms. In this context, we aim to present some common forms of resistance in teaching practice, either on the individual or on the collective plane and to foster debate on this issue. Therefore, we can recognize the resistance issue as volatile, contextual, and sometimes contradictory because it coexists with acceptance behaviors. In the context of teaching institutions, the absence of discussion and collective construction of projects of change in institutional practices may become fertile ground for the expression of resistance behaviors.

Key words: Teaching practice; Control; Resistance

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