The symbolic precariousness of the teaching profession: from narrative impoverishment to the production of sentences

Abstract

The precariousness to which the teaching profession is subjected is a condition widely conveyed in our society. The examination of socio-media discourses, data and teaching narratives reveals the existence of a form of precariousness, irreducible to material precariousness, which we propose to name as symbolic precariousness of the teaching profession. In general, this form of precariousness manifests itself in the growing episodes of devaluation, delegitimization and de-authorization of the teaching action and enunciation. It reveals an impoverishment of the narratives and representations cultivated and transmitted about teachers. In the light of writings of philosophy and, in particular, of the thought of Paul Ricoeur, this article seeks to examine how this condition is constituted and affects the teachers and their narrative identity.