Teachers in Brazil: Social Mobility and Elements for Federalism Strategies

Abstract

This work analyzed the social mobility of graduated teachers and their strategic importance for Brazilian federalism. Four topics oriented our analysis: 1) What is really the attractiveness of teacher profession? Why did secondary students decide to become teachers in Brazil?; 2) Does the academic capital (graduate degree) allow the social mobility?; 3) What is the importance of graduated teachers on social stratification? What is the importance of social mobility for teachers to national plan of education and federalism strategies?; and 4) Would teachers break with the social reproduction? Would teachers stimulate the changing of habitus? Survey and interview were the guide to quantitative, qualitative and literature analysis. In Brazil, from the method perspective of this work the main conclusions were: 1) most of the graduated teachers do not obtain a social mobility from undergraduate to exercise of profession; 2) the rise of cultural access by teachers could represent a cultural mobility; 3) the teachers are important for federalism strategies by their disposition of live in areas with low Human Development Index and low incomes than other Brazilian professionals; and, 4) the presence of teachers in number per inhabitants related with the low number of homicides per inhabitants.