O QUE SENTE O PROFESSOR?

Um estudo dos afetos a partir da Teoria Crítica da Sociedade

Abstract

This article proposes a reflection on the role of affect in teaching practice and affective relationships within the school environment, considering the contradictions present in contemporary education. The school, ideally a space for human and critical development, often becomes entangled in practices marked by competitiveness, indifference to diversity, and the reproduction of symbolic violence. Based on the Critical Theory of Society, especially the ideas of Adorno and Horkheimer, the paper problematizes the school’s role in reproducing dominant social and economic structures. Drawing on concepts such as semi-formation and instrumental reason, it discusses how education can contribute both to emancipation and to the perpetuation of barbarism. Engaging with Spinoza’s philosophy of affect and contemporary contributions from authors like Dunker and Safatle, the study highlights the importance of affect in shaping teachers’ subjectivity and school dynamics. Affects, understood as forces that increase or diminish the capacity to act, are analyzed in their ethical, social, and political dimensions. Thus, the article argues that the construction of authentic affective relationships is fundamental to truly emancipatory and humanizing education.