Continued Progression, Work and Teaching as a Profession

Abstract

In Brazil, the expansion of basic school is recent. It occurs from mid-twentieth century, and it was intensified in the last three decades. The "neoliberal" educational policies implemented during the years of 1990, had reaffirmed, as their intention, teachers' ideals and efforts, and, among them, "a quality school for all", using the concept of "inclusive school". Considering the sixty years period of expansion of elementary school's attendance, we carried a socio-historical research, analyzing critically the consequences of the continued progression, a program that was implemented during the `neo-liberal´ reform of Brazilian state. We verified the development of the figure of the desisting teacher in actuation, a process mediated by the school culture and by the adoption of the continued progression system without any changes in the precarious working conditions. We begin by presenting the culture of the research site, the first gymnasium founded in the São Paulo city, using the School Plan, which synthesizes different temporalities related to the formation of the current "Second Cycle" and of the teachers that act at this level of education. The analysis, also supported by interviews with sixteen teachers, has showed the consequences and teaching profession.