Teaching profession in private higher education

the difficult balance of who alway walks a tightrope

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the work and the health of professors who work at private institutions of higher education. It is assumed that the precarious work is one of the main factors which degrade not only education but also the health of those workers. Considering the complexity of the theme, this study was based on dialectical and historical materialism, in addition to studies about occupational mental health. Data have been collected through semi-structured interviews. Results showed that professors are subjected to precarious and intensified working conditions. To remain idealizing the profession is to facilitate an alienation that holds professors to see the work as a mission, what beyond to subject them to exhausting physical conditions, lead to a psychological pressure that may become a disorder. Thus, it is concluded that the commercialization of education distort the role of the educator and cause exhaustion, malaise and illness.