A path of the naturalization of violence against teachers

Abstract

This paper investigates the construction of a path that naturalizes violence against teachers through syncretic texts published in digital media and on social networks in 2019 aiming to understand if the tribute paid to a dead teacher on Teacher’s day of this same year is a symbolic violence. This was a year of major changes in the Brazilian political landscape, the first year of a violent government that made teachers one of its favorite targets. The choice to pay tribute to a teacher who died in the course of her profession and to set her up as an example prompted the research question in this paper: how was it possible that a teacher has become a martyr and this characteristic, despite any other qualities necessary for them to carry out their profession, comes to be held up as exemplary? Using French discursive semiotic theory, we analyze this generative path of meaning, arriving at the fundamental opposition “sacred” and “profane”, adding to the results the weight of the association of the teaching profession with women, as well as the national scenario of increased violence, which are central to establishing this path.