Do mal-estar à emancipação: desafios e possibilidades para a saúde mental dos docentes na rede municipal de ensino de São Paulo

• Autor(a) principal: Silva, Alexandre Bernardo da
• Data de Publicação: 2025
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da Uninove
• Texto Completo: http://bibliotecatede.uninove.br/handle/tede/3739
• topic: adoecimento mental docente; trabalho; neoliberalismo; teoria crítica da sociedade; mental illness in teachers; work; neoliberalism; critical theory of society; enfermedad mental en docentes; trabajar; neoliberalismo; teoría crítica de la sociedade; CIENCIAS HUMANAS::EDUCACAO

This study aims to understand the phenomenon of mental illness among education professionals teachers and school administrators through its intersections with work, society, and culture, taking the São Paulo Municipal Education Network as its empirical field. The guiding research questions are: How has the issue of mental illness among teachers been addressed in school- based mental health discussions, and how is this reflected in educational public policies? How can broader social processes those that shape labor and subjectivity—be related to the teaching profession, and how do they affect the social and psychic lives of these workers? Three central hypotheses were formulated: (a) although mental health has gained prominence in the post- COVID-19 educational agenda, the prevailing approach remains reductionist and fails to promote structural changes to the evident suffering among teachers; (b) the precarious relationship between teachers and their work, shaped by neoliberal rationality, impacts their well-being and undermines their presence and agency in the educational environment; (c) the absence of structured policies and mental health programs within the school system contributes to the growing incidence of psychological distress among teachers. This is an exploratory, qualitative study conducted in two stages. The first involved a documentary analysis of existing policies, programs, and research on mental illness within the municipal network. The second consisted of an online survey directed at teachers and school administrators, aiming to collect data on their profiles and perceptions of the relationship between mental health and professional practice. The analysis is grounded in the framework of Critical Theory, especially the contributions of Adorno, Horkheimer, and Marcuse, as well as contemporary authors who extend these perspectives into the analysis of subjectivity and labor. Methodologically, the study adopts the lens of negative dialectics, which allows for a critique of the contradictions and ideological formations that shape both educational work and the discourse around mental health. Findings confirm the hypotheses: the data reveal a rise in mental health issues among educators, accompanied by a lack of effective public policies to address this reality. Institutional responses are limited and often shaped by managerial rationality. Furthermore, broader dynamics of modern life, culture, and economy negatively affect new configurations of teaching work, which has become increasingly alienated and bureaucratized. This intensifies the suffering of education professionals and reinforces the urgent need for structural transformation.