Among passwords and screens: reconfigurations of the teacher’s work

Abstract

In the context of productive restructuring and digital culture, this study analyses the effects of technological and cultural transformations in higher education. Due to cultural change, and the new subjects and social relationships that delimitate the professor’s work, the challenges put to the professor’s professionalism and their development, in order to take their place in a web society, are assessed based on a case study. It is necessary to perceive how they understand their work, the changes occurred in it, and how it reconfigures its subjectivity. The results vary from the perception of the new demands and work rhythms brought by the digital technology, the making sense of them as updating resources, up to the preference for traditional education. The acknowledgement of the social role of the educator and the reaffirmation of values that do not depend on digital technologies are still maintained. Despite the awareness that something is not well in the profession, the perception of the history of the education process is fragile. There is a lack of clarity in perceiving the conditions that contribute to the strengthening of isolation and the expansion of the individualistic mentality, reinforced by the over-implication in a job that sways more and more to levels of precariousness. Information and communication technologies have an ambivalent action in the teacher’s work. They can contribute to change, as well as to maintaining old practices, with the appearance of innovation. In this situation, it lies with the professors, to go in search of their professional development, in order to find in it the foundation for actions that will offer commitment, professional achievement and autonomy when dealing with the contemporary transformations.