The relations among state agents in the public education system of Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

This article presents partial results of a larger study conducted within the Postgraduate Program in Education at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul. The aim of this work is to elucidate the relations among state agents of the educational system of Rio Grande do Sul, as well as their position in the field. The research was conducted with professionals from the city of Porto Alegre and portrays the state of the educational system throughout the terms of Governor Eduardo Leite (2018-2024). Concepts elaborated by Bourdieu were articulated to interpret the investigated phenomenon. Questionnaires and interviews were used to build data with teachers, managers and workers of the State Department of Education (SEDUCRS). The questionnaire received 33 answers at two schools, and 15 professionals were interviewed. Their permanence in the field seems to induce the teachers of the system to cultivate an unmotivated and careless professional performance in face of SEDUCRS’ demands. This is due to their precarious labor conditions and their disbelief in the intentions of the Department’s propositions. SEDUCRS’ workers usually are teachers who left the school, searching for a calmer working environment, but their approach to the bureaucratic field seems to distance them from the school’s reality and align them with the values and discourses of this field. These agents, however, also get entangled in a complex network of power relations that prevent them from working as they wished. Finally, it was observed that the system is composed of a weakly cohesive group, marked by hostility and distrust in the relationships among its agents.