TEACHER CAREERS AND TEACHER EDUCATION : A BRAZILIAN DILEMMA

The professional aspect of teacher education is in the core of a more general context of teachers' work. One of the most marking issues of this work's conditions, as cause and consequence of many problems, is its insertion in a career framework. At which point of this framework are teaching careers? What consequences for the teaching work may be anticipated from this relative position of teaching in the general career framework? Let us examine this situation from the Brazilian viewpoint. To discuss this subject, a study that deals with career hierarchy in higher education, the socioeconomic profile of undergraduates of some careers related to teacher formation and the position of these careers in the Brazilian university context was conducted. Socioeconomic data were obtained from national microdata of undergraduate students in a time series from 2000 to 2008. The investigation concluded that there is a strong internal hierarchy among careers in Brazil, revealing its effects in symbolic, intra institutional, employment, salary, and corporate terms. This scenario has persisted over time, without the entry of new profiles in teaching careers, traditionally addressed to low-income students.