ABSTRACT:

The teachers’ working conditions and their experiences in the basic public education network were impacted by the educational reforms implemented in the 1990s, with a strong influence on neoliberal policy. As a result of this influence, there was a precariousness of public education in basic education. The repercussions of this educational scenario, characterized by terrible work achievement conditions and devaluation of the teaching career, have been affecting the teacher's life story and caused illnesses in this working class. In this context, the aim of this study was to understand the processes involved in the illness of public school teachers in the city of Montes Claros-MG, based on experiences and working conditions. This is qualitative research, based on Symbolic Interactionism, carried out through the Grounded Theory, from a social constructionist perspective. Twelve teachers of basic education in state schools were interviewed. The data, in the analysis process, produced encodings that resulted in seven axial categories, which were searched to elucidate the theoretical assumptions of this investigation. The results of this study showed that the illness of basic education teachers involves multifactorial processes and causes. The discussions of this study pointed at the illness of basic education teachers involves multifactorial processes and causes, such as: the precariousness of teaching work; subjective manifestations of teachers' malaise and impasses in overcoming this feeling; facing conflicts with students and family members at school; the mismatches in the teacher's pedagogical practice and the repercussions of work on the teacher's personal life. Thus, as a result, all these processes were related to the physical and/or mental illness of the teachers participating in this research.

Keywords
Teachers; working conditions; health-disease process; grounded theory