Domestic work, care and aging: conditions and arrangements in the social practice of women teachers at basic education

Abstract

The article aims to discuss domestic work and aging in the field of teaching, topics that are little addressed in the environment of work and education. The main objective, which discusses these two themes is to describe, analyze and explain the conditions suffered by the overload and intensification of work, as well as the arrangements that are produced by women teachers to deal with them in their lives. This article is theoretically based on critical theories about the main categories that support the approach, namely gender, care, reproductive work, domestic work, and social class. This discussion is based on the results obtained from two studies, which included, in total, 219 women teachers of basic education from 18 counties in the Vale do Rio Pardo region or surroundings, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. As instruments of data production, the researchers used questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and discussion groups. By presenting the arrangements that women teachers produce to face intensity and overload in the working and domestic fields, the results of the study show that care and gender are essential foundations of teaching social practice. Therefore, the text concludes with the need for studies on teaching work that incorporates these fundamentals more effectively.