The Intensification of Teaching Work in Federal Public Higher Education

Abstract

This article aims to present the results of the thesis research on the intensification of the teaching work of Public Higher Education (Maia, 2014), emphasizing the objective working conditions. When analyzing the teaching work, it was found that, in the daily lives of university professors, there is a shortening of deadlines and multiple activities (teaching, research, management and extension) to be done. In addition, there is a constant expansion of the types of activities to perform, which results in a process of work intensification. Equally, excessive work characterized by the diversity of activities performed inside and outside the workspace constitutes another process related to the professor's work: flexibility. For this analysis, we opted for a qualitative approach in the empirical field at the Federal University of Paraná, as this study constitutes a case study. The approach to the locus of their work took place through semi-structured interviews, with associated professors under an Exclusive Dedication regime. The results show that there were two processes: an intensification one and a flexibility one, both individual and collective. These are manifested in the professors' daily life, in the organization and in the work dynamics, which are implemented from an external movement (public policies, management processes, reconfigurations of work), are performed by the internal actors of the institution and the academic field.