Proletarianization and precariousness of teachers' jobs: a comparative study between the military dictatorship in Brazil and the government of Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom (1979-1985)

• Grant number: 11/08262-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: September 01, 2011
• End date: August 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Fundamentals of Education
• Principal Investigator: Amarilio Ferreira Junior
• Grantee: Amarilio Ferreira Junior
• Host Investigator: Gary Mcculloch
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of London, England

Abstract

This purpose of the present research project is to study the process of proletarianization and the precarious working conditions of state school teachers of basic education in Brazil and the United Kingdom during the governments of the general-presidents, who rose to power during the state coup of 1964, and the government of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The chronological setting established corresponds to beginning of the Thatcher government (1979) and the end of military dictatorship (1985) in Brazil. This comparative study seeks to establish historical differences and similarities between two societal formations with distinct educational trajectories. While in the UK, the struggle for state school education dates back to the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, in Brazil, the expansion of universal state education only became a widespread phenomenon from the 1970s onward. Thus, this research aims to establish a comparative history of education study with reference to a Marxist theoretical and methodological approach in relation to the following phenomena: the educational policies adopted in both countries in the interregnum from 1979 to 1985; the consequences of these policies for the living and working conditions of the social category of state school teachers; and the trade union policy adopted by the movement of teachers in both the UK and Brazil in relation to the mechanisms of social and educational resilience. (AU)