Tactics to combat harassment by postgraduate professors in the Brazilian Northeast

Abstract

This article deals with the manifestation of harassment in Higher Education in Communication’s Postgraduate Programs in Communication at Brazil’s Northeast. This region, made out of nine states and 12 postgraduate programs in Social Communication, of which only two are located outside the capitals, still faces historical challenges related to the lack of educational investments compared to other regions of the country, such as South and Southeast. Based on this context, the objective of this research was to identify the coping strategies used by teachers who work in these spaces, as well as to understand the effectiveness of the reporting mechanisms adopted by educational institutions. This study adopted Grounded Theory as its methodological contribution, using semi-structured interviews as data, divided into axes that encompass the experience of harassment, its identification, and the procedures adopted by women. All 12 interlocutors who participated in the research indicated that there are organizational conditions that end up favoring the continuity of this violence, such as complex bureaucracy and structural deficiencies. The results of this study, conducted in a region with a lack of educational investment, offer insights into the conditions of this violence in a regional context, in addition to allowing reflections on similar realities in Brazil and even in Latin America.