Occupation of Higher Education Professionals under Remote Work: An Analysis of the Social Processes Shaping the Occupational Mandate

Abstract

The study examines concepts of occupations and professions to understand how the social processes that constitute the occupational mandate of education professionals are formed in remote‐work contexts. Occupation is defined by those who practice it and by judgments internal and external to the group, articulating multiple levels of analysis rather than a purely social one (Da Costa, 2018). The topic is salient because employment has historically become the principal means of achieving security, success, and the fulfillment of basic needs (Woleck, 2017). A qualitative design was adopted to capture phenomena associated with labor precarization (Sampieri, 2013). Data collection relied on a semi-structured interview, “guided by a set of points of interest that the interviewer explores throughout the process” (Gil, 2002). Interviews were conducted online with eight participants working directly in education. The corpus was examined through content analysis. Findings indicate that the rapid transition to remote teaching contributed to the precarization of teaching work and to diminished control over tasks that compose the occupational mandate, in both practical and symbolic dimensions. Four aggregated dimensions emerged from the interview data, synthesizing these transformations. Insufficient technological and infrastructural resources among students further hindered teacher–student interaction and complicated the assessment of learning outcomes. In conclusion, the abrupt modification of work processes disrupted the occupational mandate of teachers, intensifying precarization within a socially vital profession. Adaptation required a reframing of professional practice, the reconfiguration of instructional mechanisms, and an active search for knowledge and tools capable of improving the dynamics of remote classes.