Lessons from schoolteachers on their joys and pains at work

Why do schoolteachers get sick? The essay poses this question and points in some directions for answers. After discovering that the most prevalent diseases among Brazilian schoolteachers are the same as those in teachers the world over, the author concluded that the crux of the problem lies in the schoolteachers' work, the constant in the equation. Their work thus needs to be understood better, and their work should be the center of attention. The author contends that teachers themselves are best equipped for this task, precisely because they know their own work the best. The article presents the main results of a nationwide Brazilian survey in which schoolteachers in Basic Education (preschool through 16) analyzed their own work, backed by a method known as Collective Work Analysis (CWA) that enabled them to expound freely and that valued their own words. CWA proved to be a powerful tool for work analysis by integrating aspects of teaching activity per se with the schoolteachers' employment, which are usually analyzed separately, and which increased the study's explanatory power. The study also revealed positive and negative sides of this work, offering various clues for understanding not only why schoolteachers get sick but also what keeps them healthy, two different but interrelated issues.