Os Sentidos do trabalho para professores de atividades circenses de Corumbá – MS

Abstract

The purpose of this Master’s research, carried out in the Psychosocial Processes research line of the Graduate Program in Psychology at the Universidade Federal de Grande Dourados (PPGPsi-UFGD), was to investigate the meanings that teachers of circus arts attribute to their work. Work psychodynamics, with contributions from social psychology, constituted the theoretical framework used to analyze the meanings assigned by these teachers to their experiences of pleasure and distress in the professional setting. To this end, a descriptive, qualitative investigation was conducted involving five teachers from a center for circus arts located in Corumbá, Mato Grosso do Sul, Southwest Brazil. Analysis of face-to-face interviews was based on five categories: work organization, working conditions, socioprofessional relations, professional recognition, and sense of professional accomplishment. Experiences of pleasure were associated with freedom and flexibility in work organization; use of hands-on, creative intelligence in the execution of activities; personal identification with the activities performed; favorable working conditions; socioprofessional relationships of cooperation and exchange; recognition from peers and students; and a deep feeling of personal accomplishment at work. Experiences of distress were associated with work overload (among entrepreneurteachers); low salaries; professional instability; working two or more jobs concomitantly; poor access to professional qualification courses; and lack of recognition of artistic work as a valid professional practice.