Discursive practices of objectification and subjectification in the apparatus of integral education: teacher identities and resistance

Abstract

In this study, I discuss the processes of construction, deconstruction and reconstruction of the identities of seven teachers in the field of languages at an Integral Education Center in the state of Goiás, drawing from their narrated experiences and resistance strategies within the apparatus of integral education (AIE), through the discursive practices of objectification and subjectification. The study is grounded in a Foucauldian perspective of discourse analysis, using the concepts of discourse and apparatus, as well as cultural identity studies. The research is interpretive-qualitative, delineated as a case study centered on a full-time high school institution in Goiânia. Data generation techniques employed in the research were: a) a socioeconomic and professional profile questionnaire; b) accounts regarding the experiences of integral education teachers; and c) semi-structured interviews containing seven questions related to their professional and personal contexts, as well as the impressions experienced in this educational modality. From this analysis, I realized that the teachers occupy various subject-positions within the apparatus of integral education, mainly because they spend more time at school and with the students. Therefore, they end up assuming roles that are not their responsibilities (father, mother, caregiver, psychologist). Thus, objectified and subjectified by the discourses that permeate the AIE, they subjectify themselves, devising resistance practices in a constant motion of construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction of their identities.