Teacher Education: Which Place Does It Have in Teacher Insertion in Technical Schools in the Health Field?

Abstract

Introduction: higher secondary technical professional education (HSTPE) is really present in the health field, considering the great number of technical workers. Nevertheless, there are weak policies regarding teacher education. Objectives: 1. analyze which the selection criteria and methods are, regarding the education requirements as teachers and 2. connect teacher education to some aspects of the conditions of work. Methodology: a study with a dialectical and historical approach, involving document and field research. Ten (10) schools that offer technical courses in the field of health in São Paulo state took part in the study. Five (5) of these schools are public ones and the others are private, and they include branches of the Etecs - Centro Paula Souza, EtSUS, Senac, and other private schools, not only in the capital but also in the countryside of the state. The analysis of the course plans, online questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews with teachers and administrators were carried out. Conclusions: although most of the course plans and the managers indicated, primarily, the selection of teachers with a degree, special programs, or other forms of pedagogical training, there is always a dubious, uncertain, and extremely flexible aspect. The relaxed and undermined education for the teaching in the HSTPE contributes to the naturalization and the reinforcement of the aspects that converge to the deterioration of work, which needs to be contextualized, historically, in the relationships between education and the wider processes of reproduction of the capitalist society currently marked by the neoliberal ideas.