Destino profissional de egressos de um curso noturno de licenciatura em ciências biológicas

Abstract

This article presents the results of a research on the professional destiny of undergraduates from a Biological Sciences Teacher Education program at a public university in Brazil. The classes of this program take place only in the evenings. The main objective of this research was to find out where the undergraduates of this program have been, when they concluded their graduation, and for what reason they entered, or not, in teaching. The research has a quantitative and qualitative character, and the data were produced through the application of a virtual questionnaire to undergraduates who completed the program from 2007 to 2017. The results revealed a high percentage of evasion from the teaching profession – around 62% of the undergraduates did not practice the profession for which they were trained and most of those who still remained in teaching did that because of what teaching represents, for them, in its essence and not the way it happens in everyday life. One of the main conclusions of this study is that the “escape” from teaching in basic education and the exodus of teachers to other professional fields are closely related to the low wages offered, the degrading working conditions to which teachers are subjected and the disagreement between what is idealized and what is learned at the Brazilian universities and the daily work at schools throughout the country.