Nas correntezas da ambivalência: representações sociais de afetos manifestos e latentes da docência na cotidianidade da escola contemporânea

Abstract

This study embraces metaphorically the waters of a river, exposing the affective relationship with the Mearim River, which runs through the city of Pedreiras-MA. It aims to investigate the manifest and latent affections in the social representations of teachers in their daily work at the U.E. Carlos Martins school located in that municipality. The object of the article is therefore based on the manifest and latent affective ambivalence in the social representations of teachers, encompassing pleasure and displeasure in the exercise of their work. The choice for the Social Representations Theory, in the Moscovici procedural line, focused on common sense, was made by making use of the complexity of social relations constructed in the interactive process of knowledge production, where images and meanings shape knowledge and the behavior of subjects, principles that lead to the understanding of teachers' manifests of affection in everyday school life. To this, the following questions arose: What affects are manifested in the daily life of school institutions? How do the affects manifested in daily life shape the teacher's knowledge systems? What images and meanings are present in the affective manifestation along the construction of social representations of teachers in a primary school? The investigation was developed through bibliographic and field research. The bibliographic study on the school and teachers was based on Freire (1987, 2011); Nóvoa (1992, 2009); Arroyo (2003); Frigotto (2010); Melo, Bonfim e Moraes (2023); among others. Discussions about affect were supported crosswise by authors in Social Psychology and Social Representations, such as Moscovici (1978, 2005, 2012, 2015); Jodelet (2005, 2019, 2021); Arruda (2009, 2010); Ornellas (2009, 2021); Jovchelovich (2005, 2009); Lane (1981); Bonfim (2007); and others, as well as areas of Developmental Psychology such as Wallon (1954, 1999, 2007); Vygotsky (1998); e Piaget (1976). The studies aligned with the theoretical knowledge constructed and shared during mentoring sessions with Bonfim (2022 to 2026), which ran through the entire study. Data were collected through four methods: Unstructured observation, during classes of different subjects and in the teachers' room in break times, aiming to consider the subjects in their natural environment without any intervention; a Profile Questionnaire, intending to understand the participants' profiles; sending a Letter to the Teacher, encouraging teachers to write narratives

about their daily professional activity, considering the affective dimension; and, finally, a Semi- structured Interview with the management team, aiming to capture aspects that are not evident

but present in daily educational life. The data processing was carried out using Bardin's Content Analysis Technique (2016), as it allows deduction, inference, and understanding of the collected data beyond appearances. Therefore, Double-Entry Tables were used, grouping the core meanings contained in the participants' responses, which were organized into side A (arranged vertically) and side B (arranged horizontally). Both sides were crossed, giving rise to the categories of analysis. In conclusion, affective ambivalence constitutes a central characteristic of the teaching experience in the contemporary school where, on one hand, many teachers maintain a symbolic investment in the profession, fueled by values such as social commitment, a desire to contribute to the students' education, professional fulfillment, and identification with teaching. On the other hand, the structural difficulties of work, reflected in the lack of social recognition and daily wear and tear, produce feelings of frustration, exhaustion, and demotivation. The results allow the formulation of a theoretical and conceptual proposition of the Affective-Representational Latency of Teaching – ARLT, which interprets affective latency as structuring teaching itself. In other words, teaching, organized by latent affects, most often unpleasant, is reorganized and structured in a way that manifests resistance and persistence.