Public and private schools: social representations of teachers

ABSTRACT The objective of this research is to identify the social representations of teachers about public and private schools. Questionnaires with closed and open questions were applied to 87 teachers who work in formal education institutions in the metropolitan region of São Paulo. Data were analyzed with the support of the Descending Hierarchical Classification. The results pointed to representational elements regarding the public school about the lack of commitment of the parents, the imposition and lack of government support, lack of resources and investments, free education, and teacher devaluation. Regarding the private school, these teachers indicated the existence of institutional and parental support, of financial conditions, of paid teaching and learning, of apostilled content and knowledge for the labor market. It is hoped that discussions of these results will contribute to thinking about effective educational policies for both segments.