PORTRAITS OF TEACHING: THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE (SELF)IMAGE OF MOZAMBICAN TEACHERS

Abstract

The quality of basic education in Mozambique's public schools is something that is debated and present in social and political discourse. At the same time, there is a growing movement of teachers who decide to continue their studies and choose to invest individually in higher education. This seems to have a number of underlying reasons, but it is well known that Mozambican society assigns unattainable responsibilities to schools and teachers, such as improving the quality of education and the success of pupils, transferring this responsibility that should and will have to be shared with the other players in the process. In this sense, this research sought to give voice to these social actors in order to understand the (self)image of primary school teachers in public schools in the city of Beira, trying to understand the unexplained reasons for choosing the teaching profession, their motivations for continuing their studies, as well as their commitment to the profession. The research was based on a qualitative approach and used semi-structured interviews as a technique applied to 8 teachers who taught in 4 primary schools in the geographical context in question. The main results indicate vocation and employability as determining factors for entering the teaching profession, and in relation to their (self)image, they seem to return some social disenchantment, as they say they feel motivated, although they don't feel recognised and valued, either by society or by those responsible for educational policy.