Universitary teaching in words…

Abstract

This article aims to analyze university teaching from expressions and typifications made by university professors themselves in various occasions in their careers, collected in a survey. Using quantitative and qualitative methodology, field research utilized a questionnaire with open and closed questions, answered by four groups of 86 surveyed: incoming masters and doctoral students; teachers with five years of experience; teachers with a twenty--year career, and teachers with thirty years of teaching activity. The descriptions of teaching activities and of profiles made by these different groups revealed significant variations in perceptions of the university teaching profession and of the profile of such professional. It is concluded that the professional identities and careers of academics are constructed and reconstructed in a dynamic way, having undergone changes in the last thirty years. The terms and terminologies used by participants reveal some confusion between what the professor is and what he does, making it difficult to make a professional characterization or identity. A strong influence of specific academic education in undergraduate courses and the presence of technical and relational aspects defining the performance were indicated, but little emphasis on essential teaching preparation or education of persons conducting such activity. We also con-cluded that in the teaching career it should be given special attention to the processes of access, professionalisation, support for the development and evaluation of the work of teachers. The aim is thereby to improve the quality of the education of new professionals, the performance of professors in their teaching, in research and in extension, and to improve the university itself as preparer of citizens and skills for the current, competitive and changeable work market.