Teacher work in contemporary capitalism: How does digital educational privatization affect teacher professionalism?

Abstract

This study problematizes the implications for teaching of digital educational privatization processes, discussing how teaching professionalism has been impacted by the adoption of platforms that manage teacher work. The study, of a theoretical nature, aims to answer the following research problem: How does the use of platforms that manage teachers’ work in digital educational privatization processes affect teachers’ professionalism? The hypothesis developed is that the colonization of subjectivities in contemporary capitalism is intensified in teachers with the insertion of digital platforms in their daily work, turning their pedagogical work into a controlled and bureaucratic activity, while at the same time depriving the teacher of acting from their experience, their intellectuality, their creativity and their autonomy. It raises questions about how these tools have taken teaching away from its political, creative and critical nature, adopting a technical rationality in which digital bureaucracy subjects teachers to constant productivity, standardizing and shaping their practices and impacting on the way they conceive of their role and their professional value.