The influence of the socioeconomic profile of public and private school teachers on their choice of professional position

Abstract

The objective of this article is to investigate the relationship between the socioeconomic profile of basic education teachers and their choice for the private or public network as professional position. The concepts of Pierre Bourdieu, especially the concepts of cultural capital, field and habitus, guide our analysis. As a hypothesis, we consider that private school teachers, when compared to public school teachers, have incorporated a cultural matrix with dominant dispositions that make it possible to establish certain strategies of professional distinction and also regulate positions in the professional field. The methodological procedures involve the use of questionnaire and interview. The results allow us to conclude that private network teachers have a socioeconomic profile that differs from that public network teachers. The study also pointed out that the salary is the main regulator of the positions in the professional field, since the investigated teachers built their professional trajectory because of the economic return or, case of the public network, because of job stability.