Assistant teachers’ professional careers at Instituto de Educação do Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s

Abstract

This article aims to assess the professional career developed by assistant teachers at Instituto de Educação do Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s, a teacher qualification middle school. This type of program was the only type of qualification available then. These assistant teachers were hired due to the lack of more qualified teaching staff to cater for the increasing numbers of student teachers enrolment as a consequence of state school expansion. Theoretical approaches comprise career studies according to Giovani Levi and Claude Dubar, considerations about socialization promoted by the institutional program in the view of François Dubet, in addition to the concept of experience as conceived by Edward P. Thompson. The study methodology used document analysis and interviews in the light of oral history. It may be concluded that despite the typical subjectivity that features the teaching profession, every teaching action is directly dependent on the teaching staff’s adhesion to the school curriculum and syllabus.

Keywords: History of Education, Instituto de Educação, assistant teachers.