Financialization of higher education: an analysis of the implications for teaching labor

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss how the demands and logics of the financial market are reflected in the work of teachers in private and financialized higher education organizations in Brazil, identifying elements that contribute to the debate about the daily implications of financialization in the activity of teachers. Based on exploratory research with male and female teachers inserted in the context of the financialization of higher education and the subsequent content analysis of the responses obtained, it was shown that financialization deepens the process of transformation of labor initiated by the commodification of education. In addition to the precariousness and intensification of work, which are reflections of elements of financialization such as the preference for liquidity and short-term profitability, financialization reconfigures teaching and education management work, increasing standardization, widening the distance between management and teaching work and introducing new roles related to the management of appearances within these organizations and the consequent self-marketing and self-promotion of teachers.