TEACHING IN DISTANCE EDUCATION: SUBJECTIVATION PROCESSES

ABSTRACT

The present study was produced to investigate how university professors experienced the transition from on-site higher education to teaching in distance education, focusing on teaching subjectivity in the variations resulting from the new work situation. Methodologically, it is a qualitative research conducted by semi-structured interviews and which adopted the case study as a strategy, aiming at the detailed characterization of the changes produced in the ways of working. The discussion of the results revealed the huge gap between classroom teaching and distance education which evidenced the adoption of maintenance insertion strategies in the new working conditions. The professors’ subjectivation processes were evidenced, as well as the control procedures that start to focus on the teaching work in the new modality. As a provisional conclusion, the disappearance of the face-to-face relationship and the precariousness of teaching work were highlighted.

Keywords:
subjectivity; teaching work; media

RESUMO

O presente estudo foi produzido para conhecer como os professores universitários vivenciaram a transição da educação superior presencial para a docência no ensino à distância, focalizando a subjetividade docente nas variações decorrentes da nova situação de trabalho. Metodologicamente trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa conduzida pela realização de entrevistas semiestruturadas e que adotou como estratégia o estudo de caso visando a caracterização detalhada das mudanças produzidas nos modos de trabalhar. A discussão dos resultados revelou a enorme distância existente entre o ensino presencial e a EAD (Educação à Distância) o que evidenciou a adoção de estratégias de inserção de manutenção nas novas condições laborais. Foram evidenciados os processos de subjetivação dos docentes assim como os procedimentos de controle que passam a incidir sobre o trabalho docente na nova modalidade. Como conclusão provisória destacou-se o desaparecimento da relação presencial e a precarização do trabalho docente.

Palavras-chave:
subjetividade; trabalho docente; mídia

RESUMEN

El presente estudio se produjo para conocer cómo los profesores universitarios vivenciaron a la transición de la educación universitaria presencial a la docencia en la enseñanza a distancia, focalizando la subjetividad docente en las variaciones resultantes de la nueva situación de trabajo. Metodológicamente se trata de una investigación cualitativa conducida por la realización de entrevistas semiestructuradas y que adoptó como estrategia el estudio de caso visando la caracterización detallada de los cambios producidas en los modos de trabajar. La discusión de los resultados apuntó la gran distancia existente entre la enseñanza presencial y la EAD (Educación a Distancia) lo que evidenció la adopción de estrategias de inserción de manutención en las nuevas condiciones laborales. Se evidenciaron los procesos de subjetivación de los docentes bien como los procedimientos de control que pasan a incidir sobre la labor docente en la nueva modalidad. Como conclusión provisoria se destacó el desaparecimiento de la relación presencial y la precarización de la labor docente.

Palabras clave:
subjetividad; labor docente; media

INTRODUCTION

Distance learning, as a regular and instituted educational practice is the object of recurrent questions concerning its effectiveness, as well as the impact caused by its adoption in the Brazilian educational environment. This mode of teaching is usually presented as a predictable consequence of the communication and technological acquisitions that took place in the second half of the 20^th century and that resulted in the worldwide computerization of societies in a global scale. The emergence of Distance Education (DE) realized by means of computerized and technological apparatus brought with it a set of changes that were so significant for onsite education that it became difficult to understand DE as a byproduct of onsite education (Veloso & Mill, 2019). It would be more appropriate to recognize DE as a disruptive, destabilizing educational practice for the previously adopted modes of teaching and learning.

First of all, DE opposes onsite education by means of the adoption of educational procedures that are not onsite. School education, as we know it, has its organization based on the here and now that are shared by all agents of the educational process. This is what we call the classroom. By means of the transformations that resulted in the computerization of societies, the educational process was able to detach itself from the onsite context and activities were assigned to be executed in distant locations and different moments. This new context, which can be described as not onsite, was only made possible by the universalization of the use of the network-connected PC, in the vehicle that became known as the internet.

In order to historically situate the set of transformations experienced by societies such as the advent of computerization and distance education, we will employ a terminology proposed by Michel Foucault (1987), which is disciplinarian society, described by Foucault as the presence of a set of institutions referred to enclosed physical spaces, and with defined functions targeting the execution of a process of labor force formation and the punishment of those who fail to adapt to this process. The disciplinarian society aims at providing humans with utility in their insertion into production processes. It is understood that onsite school education is a result of the existence of disciplinarian societies, ongoing ever since the beginning of capitalism. The transition to DE can be located historically in the period that starts with the gradual decline of the disciplinarian so that another regime of powers could be gradually implanted. This new regime can be understood by means of the description proposed by Gilles Deleuze (1992), which highlights a set of political effects of the communication and technological acquisitions produced by the emergence of control societies. Among these changes, there is the new distance education mode, which helps in the comprehension of the historical emergence of distance education and that can also be identified in a series of other social institutions.

The way these problems are approached in the realm of social psychology highlights the fact that both the change from disciplinarian to control society and the more specific change from onsite to distance education are followed by transformations in the subjectivity plan. Due to the historical moment, individuals change and insert themselves into a transformation process in order to remain employed. Evidently, the condition of student in this new model could also be the object of investigation since DE drastically alters the practices to be executed by the students, which implies a subjective change.

Based on the conception that the human is made, in everyday life, by means of actions, including the ones that belong to labor activity, the present research aimed at understanding the objective and subjective constitution of this new professional, the teacher in our new space-time configuration. Such professional, even after changing into another type of professional, relies on this new configuration, and becomes the subject of a new form as strategy to insert oneself in an emergent professional practice.

In order to go ahead with our investigation, in the terms described above, there is the need for a conceptual approach that characterizes individuals by their actions, so that it becomes possible to understand these individuals constituted by their labor practices. In order to do so, we will use the expression “working individual”. Who is this working individual who play the role of teacher in DE? What constitutes this individual? Which subjective components (affections, desires, moral values, impressions, and others) does this individual announce? How does labor, in the new non-onsite conditions, gets executed in this new constitution of the individual? We gathered in the work of Deleuze (1992, 2001) the needed subsidies for the problematization of these new labor and life conditions.

To Deleuze (2001), only after the daily realized meetings do individuals constitute themselves with the raw materials provided by the social environment and in a different way for every historical period. This dynamic, bearing the mark of complexity, can be characterized as a process of subjectivation that stems from data obtained by means of experience. The succession of experiences becomes then the field for constitution of individuals, which subsequently gain access to them by the data obtained at every moment. Furthermore, it is possible to say that: “After careful examination, one comes to the conclusion that it is just another way of saying: individuals constitute themselves by data” (Deleuze, 2001, p. 118).

Based on a conception of subjectivity which is processual, there is no possibility of identifying the subject as something essentially permanent. Contrarily, these individuals are making and unmaking themselves by means of the encounters they experience, or even in the experiences they go through. According to Mansano (2018), the constitution of individuals is a complex process upon which there are no possibilities for prediction and control, despite incessant efforts towards that direction, including the field of psychology itself. The author observes:

In this sense, it is impossible to keep any sort of planning or control over what is going to come up, as a way of life, after individuals’ contact with the data. To Deleuze, the composition of individuals involves a live and, therefore, provisory process because individuals are vulnerable to the action of new forces and circumstances. (Mansano, 2018, p. 116).

Considering the provisory condition present in the constitution of individuals, Deleuze (2001) believes that the idea that there might be a formed individual is an illusion. What really exists is the making of permanent individuals, that is, the putting into practice this condition of self-production. In the author’s words: “If individuals are constituted by data, the only thing that exists indeed is the practical individual” (Deleuze, 2001, p. 98).

Based on the considerations of Deleuze (2001), we might consider that becoming an individual is a practice, which requires an active position by the ones going through the process. If th practices we carry out are the providers for our condition as individuals, it is important to take into consideration the practices we execute throughout life in the realm of the so-called work relations. The practical individuals are also working individuals, engaged in the specific conditions for executing their work and constituting their own singularity meanwhile. In the case of DE teachers, these conditions are coincidental with capitalist modern times, which can be characterized by the existence of control societies.

To Deleuze (1992), a control society is also a communication society, a mode of social organization that intensely uses the communication and technological apparatus to go deeper in the exploitation of labor. In this type of society, where discipline is already internalized, new modes of submission are developed in the wake of new practices in the exercise of power. Thus, the individual who used to be an obedient worker becomes now the participating employee, who is flexible and permanently connected to the business context by means of the communication and technological apparatus, according to the considerations of Azambuja and Guareschi (2007):

This new composition of the social presents as main characteristic, the confinement of individuals in an open environment, that is, control, which was previously verified by the circulation of the individual around enclosed spaces from home to school, from school to work, etc., takes place now in the confinement by the means of communication. (p. 442).

According to Hardt and Negri (2001), at this moment the worker is required to create a mode of self-management. Individuals need to promote themselves, and literally manage their own careers and lives. There is no longer a need for employees to realize the supervision of tasks in the work environment, which reveals the existence of a very efficient monitoring system. In this society of “incessant control in an open environment, we are likely to believe that harsher confinements belong to a delicious, benevolent past” (Deleuze, 1992, p. 216).

Presently, the worker transformed by social planning comes to work with a collection of intellectual skills such as creativity and the capacity to solve problems, as well as sensibility. The whole set of social relations, including the ones experienced outside the work context is affected in this process. But what about the ones working as educators? What is the scenario?

The teaching process nowadays is no longer restricted to the walls of schools and to onsite classrooms, which used to operate by means of the confinement mode. Educational time and space are incorporated into existence by means of Distance Education (DE). To Deleuze (1992, p. 216), “we are entering control societies, which no longer operate by means of confinement, but by means of continuous control and instant communication”.

According to the evidence in the affirmation by Deleuze, education, already transformed, no longer takes place within spaces enclosed by walls. Education now takes place in the individuals’ everyday life, wherever they are. This is the first sign of the disappearance of the school space. Let’s see:

It is possible to predict that education will be less and less of an enclosed means, apart from the professional environment - another enclosed means - and both means will disappear and be replaced by a terrible permanent formation, of continuous control being exercised over the student-employee or over the executive-university student. They try to make us believe in the reform of school, but it is indeed a case of extermination. (Deleuze, 1992, p. 216).

With the expansion of DE, there is the possibility of continuous formation at any time of the day, as we have mentioned before, with flexibility of timetables and the availability of diverse courses. And that, according to Deleuze (1992), brings changes to the everyday lives of DE students. To Lemos (2009), with the advent of distance education, we enter a social context characterized as control society, in which the separation between domestic life, and work and study environments, lose their boundaries, while new practices emerge for control in open environment. In the author’s words:

The limitations imposed by the institutional walls break down and we have new modes of relations without the direct mediation of educational and work environments. Distance education, therefore, could be characterized as a mode of education that is framed by the determinations of a society of control in open environment. (Lemos, 2009, p. 674).

Is it the end of school walls? The classroom space as a place for the learning process and the intervention of teachers has been replaced by the teaching platform. The functions of the educational process, previously gathered in a common space-time, are now decentralized. In the words of Deleuze (1992, p. 221): “National education: in effect, just like the company replaces the factory, permanent formation tends to replace school, and continuous control replaces the examination”.

Thus, it is a deep transformation that completely alters the nature of onsite education as well as the procedures by all involved agents, while redefining functions and, most importantly, making the onsite space of the classroom disappear. The teaching profession presents a reduction in its operational complexity and a subsequent decrease in the number of spaces for experimentations on professional practices, which is a fact that generates, according to what will be demonstrated in the results, a series of impacts that lead to precarious working conditions for such professionals (Veloso & Mill, 2018). Before presenting the results of this research, it is important to produce some considerations on the methodological trajectory for the gathering of data.

METHODOLOGY

Methodologically speaking, it consists of a qualitative research targeting the subjectivation processes of teachers working in DE, in order to understand the experienced transformations they go through in their relation with labor. The adoption of this methodological positioning can be understood in the affirmation by Minayo and Sanches (1993, p. 243): “it is in the field of subjectivity and of symbolism that the qualitative approach affirms itself”.

After the realization of ethical procedures require for research works with human beings, a semi-structured interview with the intent to elucidate their conditions of living and working in each one of the two educational models was realized (distance and onsite) while demonstrating subjective components related to the labor condition.

Three axes were approached in order to provide guidelines for the interviews: 1. The functions and attributions of DE in comparison with its performance in onsite teaching; 2. Everyday working life; 3. The forms of control included in this new educational model. The criterion for selecting participants was the experience accumulated in at least one year of onsite teaching and one year in DE, while such experiences could me concurrent or not.

Data were assessed by means of the axes chosen for the interviews, while having as guiding elements, the concepts of subjectivity, work, and control, which were presented and further analyzed in the previously exposed theoretical referential. The assessments concerned the alterations in the teaching work in the transition from onsite to distance education, the new labor organizations, and the relations established between the teaching activity and media technology.

RESULTS

Now we present the transformations that took place in the teaching work due to entrance in DE. The research participants affirm that, unlike onsite education, DE poses a whole new lot of challenges to the teaching work. The changes faced by teachers in DE start with the inclusion of the tutor in the teaching and learning process. Tutoring is intended to support the learning process and the students’ development. The tutoring professional is the one responsible for providing assistance to students regarding their questions and the appropriations of the discipline contents. How do the interviewed teachers deal with this educational agent? The presence of tutors is mentioned by the participants when they explain their functions and the participation of tutors in their everyday lives. Our starting point will be the fragments that connect the distance teachers’ work with the figure of the tutor. We will see that to Emilia, tutoring is supposed to provide support to the teachers’ practice in this new working condition. Such notion is evident in the account below:

Who else is going to help me? I need tutors. I cannot live without them. I just can´t. In this model, it is one of the most important figures… The tutor is the most important one in my opinion. Without a tutor, I don’t get it. I don’t know what is going on. (Emília, participant, 2018).

In DE, the teacher no longer occupies center position in the learning process. Tutoring presents itself as an extension of the teachers’ work. It fills up the gap between the student and the teacher. In the absence of expressions by the students, the interviewee handles data provided by the tutors. Data and accounts are consolidated by the tutors and forwarded to the teachers. In the execution of their work, teachers end up changing themselves, and eventually adapt to the DE reality. The changes that took place in the organization of work in the transition from onsite to distance education resulted in another working mode for the teachers. By the teachers’ reports, we can consider that “these observations reveal the apparent manifestation of deep historical transformation in the education system, a movement that was determined by the changes in the production mode.” (Sá, 2013, p. 22).

In the DE model, according to the participants’ testimonies, the teachers’ work has become fragmented, precarious, and spread out over a network. The educational functions are realized at different times and places in the teaching work. The learning process is no longer exclusively centered on the teacher figure. Changes are observed in the organization of the routine for class preparation. When compared with onsite education, the pace of DE is faster and such change produces an impact in the everyday life of teachers. Such reality can be observed in the account by Emília:

You select what you think most important and, in fact, the whole selection is accomplished. The onsite selection is the same as the one for DE. Then you will go through the whole selection, without any problems. But I feel you end up going through things too fast, don’t you think? For everything. I wish I could spend more time approaching topics, but we do not have that time. (Emília, participant, 2018).

The teacher’s work is being controlled by the capitalist logic, turning the teachers’ action into a product that will be commercialized as a teaching method and teaching material (Hypolito & Grishcke, 2013). Paulo’s testimonial brings us an explanation on the time limitation in his DE work:

In DE, it takes you one hour and twenty minutes to go over material that would normally take me three whole lessons to teach in the onsite mode. As you can see, it is necessary to have great time-management skills. Each session must neither exceed nor fall short of its objective. So the challenge is much greater. No comparison. (Paulo, participant, 2019).

The content of DE is formatted or the type of class. Teachers do not have the possibility, due to time limitations, to extend explanations on a certain topic in which they wish to go deeper. With the testimonial above, the time for presentation of content is reduced to one third of the time that is available in onsite education. We might as ourselves: what is the students’ learning speed? Is it possible to say that what has been said only once in video can be considered acquired content? Do the repetition processes not play an important role in the learning process? DE lessons, however, have pre-determined contents and standards and, according to testimonials, these procedures must be followed.

One of the impacts of DE in the teaching practice was the transformation of the teaching role into a production-oriented routine that, in addition to lessons, demands from teachers the production of materials to be used with the students in the teaching platform. This is Paulo’s testimonial:

On the other hand, the teacher’s role, it has transcended the role of teaching, of passing along content. Today, we have a load of things to take care of. It is quite inhumane. It is way too much responsibility. Weekends and late nights are sacrificed. Time is too short. So, the teacher’s role is a little heavy. I wish I could have time to better prepare content and search for fresh ones. Nowadays, I no longer have time to go for new information. It has become mass production, like Fordism, or Taylorism, that just produces and produces. (Paulo, participant, 2019).

The recording studio appears in the teachers’ testimonials as a source of new subjective components, to be considered for analysis. The relation that takes place with the students in onsite education simply does not exist in DE. It has been replaced by the recording studio. According to Maia and Mattar (2007), in this situation, the DE teacher cannot:

Control the direction of the camera and zoom in on things the same way I control the things that should draw attention when the class is in front of me.

Today, I cannot move during the lesson, as in a regular classroom, and get close to students or sometimes away from them in order to find the best perspective for the lesson. Eye contact is also an impossibility. (p. 11).

DE has submitted the teacher’s practice to a very evident loss of autonomy and that has led to the production of content and the recording of lessons. According to Moore and Kearsley (2008, p. 326), “educational services are offered in a mass market with concomitant effect on the quality of what is provided, because the most important goal consists of maximizing the final product and the volume”. The teacher’s work can then be measured and quantified, that is, controlled by the productive logic of DE. Thus, the teaching practice remains reduced to what can be quantified in their work. We can see, in Paulo’s further comment that this process is irreversible:

I just want to add that I believe there is going to be no change at all. This is no longer a trend, it is already reality. DE is the fastest growing teaching mode in the world, let alone in Brazil. And the ones who fail to adapt… I believe there are two types of companies and two types of professionals: the ones who change and the ones who fade away. Our only choice is change… DE teachers are like chameleons: they will either adapt or die. (Paulo, participant, 2019).

In this excerpt, it is possible to identify a whole set of modifications in the teachers’ professional practice. Such modifications can be considered indicators of the existence of power relations, in the terms of the definition proposed by Foucault (1995) for this concept. The authors considers:

In fact, the thing that defines a power relation is a mode of action that does not affect the others directly or immediately. It rather acts on its own action, one action over another action, over occasional, or current, or future, or present actions. (Foucault, 1995, p. 243).

There are diverse powers interplaying in order to transform the teachers’ procedures. The teachers’ practice was modified DE for the sake of adaptation. The previous close-captioned account hints at the possibility of unemployment, since the number of unemployed teachers poses a threat to the teachers who have managed to keep their jobs. In DE, according to the testimonials presented so far, presents the possibility of replaying an already recorded class for other courses or semesters, in addition to the teachers’ replaceability. This reproduction will not generate further expenses for the educational institution, nor will it provide income for teachers, which renders these professionals even more vulnerable (Penteado & Costa, 2021).

This power is a characteristic of control society. Despite not being coerced by the authority figures of disciplinarian society, teachers still feel under pressure. With the internalized discipline, workers present what Hardt and Negri (2001) denominate self-management, which shows us that teachers are already under the effect of impersonal, or market procedures, which characterize control society. “Thus, workers are attributed the task to adapt to the profile required by companies and, thus, what should sound like oppression strangely sounds like an exercise in autonomy” (Magno, Barbosa, & Martins, 2012, p. 89). It is possible for us to better understand the changes in the organization of the teachers’ work in DE. Teachers’ functions have been modified and distributed with new agent, who present themselves in the everyday working routine. We will proceed to a comprehension of the social relations constructed in this teaching mode. When they were asked about their relationships with the students, the answers were quite assertive, according to the excerpts below:

I... I believe it is a rather distant contact. Tutors are the ones who play that role in DE. We have little interaction with students. And if there is any interaction during the lesson, if the students have any question, the tutors are still the ones who manage that, right? The questions are curated by the tutors. So I think tutors are the ones who interact with the students almost all the time. We have very little contact with students. (Emília, participant 2018).

The teacher handles the student by means of the tutors. There is no possibility to get to know the students questions and issues straight from the source. It is a relation that is mediated by the tutor figure, which completely changes such relation. Participant Paulo reports his wish to have actual interaction with his students. However, the dynamics of DE prevent such interaction due to the number of students. Let’s see:

We do not have any relation with the students. Yes, I would like further interaction but that is not possible. Especially due to the number of students. There are courses with hundreds of students. So, just imagine half these students seeking contact. (Paulo, participant, 2019).

Unlike onsite classrooms where, due to the size of physical spaces, the number of students attending a class is limited, in DE the number of students is virtually boundless. In DE the absence of a physical structure leads to limitless increases in the number of students, who are distribute over the teaching platform, and that is also conducive to precarious conditions for teachers. Precarious teaching, therefore, leads to a lack of support for students, who now have to learn how to study by themselves. Let’s see:

ecause we have the knowledge we are the ones who end up having to produce DE because it sounds like the most sensible decision. It is not. DE lacks discipline. Sometimes i doubt i would be able to take a course by DE myself. You must do everything by yourself in order to do it, right? Some disciplines are very complex and you have to figure out how to learn things by yourself because there is no teacher there to help you. Students have to send their questions to the teacher by means of the tutors because they do not have the answer to provide then and there. That is what I believe is lacking for these students, don’t you think? The students have gotten used to having questions answers promptly and receiving constant support. These things are inexistent in DE. (Paulo, participant, 2019).

The accounts seem to hint the belief that students are not ready for DE. We can understand that the students, due to the transition from disciplinarian to control society, still display vestiges of the disciplinarian period. University is still seen as a disciplinarian institution in which the students take courses with the support of an authority figure. It is the legacy of the disciplinarian period that presents itself in distance education.

In onsite education, teachers will deal with situations that might by quite unexpected. During this encounter and interaction there might emerge situations that had not been predicted by the teachers. Such situations demand “unprecedented solutions that do not depend on technical knowledge. Thus, the way each teacher will respond to affections, difficulties, and unpredicted situations that come up during their interaction with the students cannot be prescribed” (Mansano, 2009, p. 213). In DE, the relation with the students is mediated by the recording studio, without any contact whatsoever with students. Considering this scenario, the subjective components will be different ones in the work of teachers. According to the account by Emília:

I believe that in DE, relations also change. That is what I think…The lack of actual contact changes relations. That’s what makes me wonder. When you have a greater volume of content, or greater diversity, you sometimes get… I believe that students miss the presence of the teacher. Sometimes it feels like I am not a teacher anymore. (Emília, participant, 2018).

The studio theme presents itself as inevitable part of the organization of the work of the teacher in DE. Concerning relationships, we wonder what kind of relation it is that establishes itself with the mediation of the studio. What type of relation if constituted? The mediation established by the recording cameras in the studio comes up in the following excerpts:

In the studio, you do not really worry about content. You must be aware of the kind of language you use, you cannot play jokes, you must pay attention to sound technicalities, to your own position in front of the camera, you must worry with your tone of voice over the microphone. Even the clothes you wear affect the process. Striped shirts are not advisable because they might cause visual confusing effects for students. You must avoid regional idioms. There are terms that, when heard by people from other states, make no sense to them. They have no idea what the idiom means. (Paulo, participant, 2019).

The participants show with their accounts that in DE the lessons are impersonal and teachers do not have a chance to fully express themselves. The recording standards pose limitations to the teachers’ performances and must be strictly followed for the execution of the work. Teachers, in this scenario, establish a relation with the studio and this relation produces a series of effects on their professional practice. Also, it is possible to identify a loss in character by the practice according to the study by Penteado and Costa (2021). The authors consider:

The performance and fluidity of the teacher are more appreciated than knowledge: and audio-visual language becomes an important pedagogical resource. The video lesson (by putting together scenario, lighting, cameras, framings, vignettes, soundtrack and other elements) presents an obvious resemblance with television productions. (p. 7).

The transformation in the realized activity, in its turn, produces an effect in the subjectivation processes of the teachers, which can be identified in the following excerpt: “the teachers in DE submit their own bodies, their images, their practices, and their selves to logics that interfere in the constructions of teacher identity and in the pedagogical practice - changing the very nature of teaching.” (Penteado & Costa, 2021, p. 14).

New subjective components are inserted in the DE educational context. Before this teaching outset, Deleuze (1992) predicted this radical institutional transformation. In the author’s words: “It is possible to predict that education will become less and less of an enclosed means, apart from the professional environment - another enclosed means - and that both will disappear for the sake of a terrible mode of permanent formation (Deleuze, 1992, p. 216). For the interviewed teachers, one of the new components can be found in the effects of the recorded lesson, which leads to a unilateral assessment, according to the following testimonial by Emilia. Any person with access to the lesson contents will be able to watch and judge the performance of the teacher. In the absence of personal interaction, the teacher will not get any feedback on their performance, which might make them feel they are being judged unfairly. According to Emilia:

There is judgement in all senses. You become the poster-person of the university, you get judged, thus, by the university, by the students, by the other teachers, you know… Everyone can see you. You get much exposed and feel the pressure to be flawless in every class, which is impossible. (Emília, participant, 2018).

With the recorded class, teachers are assessed all the time. This leads to greater anxiety when teachers face the challenge to present a performance in which everything is observed including their looks, their clothes and their theoretical competence. The recording of lessons poses a higher degree of demand and control. Video lessons have the capacity to cause different types of mental discomfort due to the elements involved in the organization of the work. Thus, teachers become “receptors of perceptions, representations, experiences and negative feelings that will contribute to further discomfort, frustration, lack of motivation, overloading, physical and mental burnout, in addition to other types of suffering.” (Penteado & Costa, 2021, p. 14).

Besides, there is no need for a pedagogical agent present in order to monitor the educational performance of the teacher. At this moment, characteristic of control society, teachers present an internalized, disciplined posture. Control over their practice takes place by means of the possibility of someone else watch the class and judge the teachers’ performance. The participant continues her testimonial by explaining the new conditions that affect her everyday working life:

There is the outfit, makeup, everything. Hair, more makeup. There are concerns over whether the outfit fits me or not… you know, it’s all so… I was wearing this blouse but, I don’t know, nothing seems appropriate to wear. Just imagine. Stripes? No way. On vídeo lesson days you cannot wear flowered patterns or certain colors, or even white jacket. (Emília, participant, 2018).

The preoccupation with esthetic matters in the recording process is evident. The teachers need to adapt to the new technological requirements. In DE, there is no possibility for individuals express themselves during the lesson with their own linguistic style, or even by wearing the clothes they like. Participant Emilia further comments on the relation between the studio and personal appearance in the following excerpt:

Colleagues eve tease each other when they are ready to record lessons because of so much makeup. Some of them are like: “All right, I can see today is class day.” I always reply: “Of course it’s class day, why else would I have to wear so much paint on my face?”. And then you can see the boys wearing suit jackets, and the girls also present themselves differently. But the women have no choice. On class day, the whole makeup thing… but this experience is not a bad one. You feel like a celeb on class day. (Emília, participant, 2018).

The impact of the introduction of the serial process o lesson recording reverberates on the whole production of educational material. It is necessary to consider that the transition to DE introduced an unprecedented proximity between education and the current practices in the means of communication. Due to this process, it is possible to consider that:

The video lessons might lead to new, creative ways of communication between teachers and students but it can also restrict the processes of transition from formation to instruction and from knowledge to information. That happens in the migration from traditional classes to the environment of the means of communication, where the teachers are seen as entertainers or presenters of content, and the students become spectators. (Penteado & Costa, 2021, p. 6).

Interaction becomes ruled by the norms and techniques of the recording process. With the lack of contact with the students, teachers no longer worry about the misbehavior by the students or whether they are even paying attention. In DE, due to technological mediation, these problems no longer exist.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

What educational mode is this? It does not solely consist of distance learning, but rather a process that has been transformed by the studio, by the mediation of tutors, and by the social networks. Teachers do not have the freedom to express their individuality with the students, or even use local idioms during the class. The recorded class leads to stricter control over the work of teachers. In Onsite education, teachers nowadays have to deal with the implications of having students recording and sharing their classes in social networks. In DE, all lessons are recorded and made available to everyone with access to the teaching platform and the students are still able to share their criticisms online. Unlike onsite education with its limitations concerning the physical spaces of classrooms, the DE class is broadcast to a countless number of students.

In onsite classrooms, teachers interact directly, no electronic mediators before the students. DE teachers interact with the recording studio. DE produces and reproduces as a subjectivation component, the isolation of teachers. In DE, teachers most frequently work with a self-centered orientation.

It is also important to emphasize that with the emergence of the pandemic context caused the SAR-COV-2 virus and established since 2020, the educational activities connected to remote education became intensified. In this new context, the effects and transformations identified in this research have ceased to be a trend and established themselves as routine in the everyday life of educational professionals and students. The effects of such intensification are still being investigated, which opens a vast field for fresh research on DE themes.

As a provisory conclusion, we wish to emphasize that the professional practice of teachers was so deeply changed in the transition from onsite to distance education that teachers in the DE regime sometimes cease to recognize themselves as teachers. The coexistence of onsite with distance education, considered equivalent from the point of view of social recognition, can be questioned due to the gap between the two modes. Finally, we highlight the importance of proceeding with investigations on how subjectivity constitutes itself in each one of the educational models. In this direction, a strategic phase would be the realization of research with students that went through higher learning in the two models so that more we can discover further implications of this disruptive change in the educational scenario.

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• This paper was translated from Portuguese by Régis Lima.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  22 Apr 2022
• Date of issue
  2022

History

• Received
  27 Oct 2019
• Accepted
  20 July 2021