Teacher Experience in the Precarization Process


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Bağdatlı Vural N., Vural B.

JOURNAL OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN EDUCATION-EGITIMDE NITEL ARASTIRMALAR DERGISI, sa.42, ss.103-139, 2025 (ESCI, TRDizin)

Özet

Precarization, which signifies the destructive consequences of the expansion and deepening of neoliberal conditions on the working classes of the 21st century, has also affected the field of education, which is increasingly regarded as a service sub-sector rather than a universal public necessity. This study aims to reveal how teachers experience processes of precarization. In line with this purpose, based on a phenomenological research design, in-depth interviews were conducted with a group of participants consisting of teachers from private schools, private course centers and hourly-paid teachers from public schools in Istanbul. The analysis of the interviews revealed that the experiences of teachers in the process of precarization have three main dimensions: the experience of the material conditions surrounding precarious teaching labour, social relations that can be described as the immaterial dimensions of this mode of labour, and strategies for coping with and resisting the conditions of precarization. The research indicates that like private course teachers and hourly-paid teachers, who have been frequently shown to work in low-status and insecure positions, private sector teachers are also being drawn into precarious life contexts. The article also shows that for many teachers unionisation becomes a means to maintain their hopes for their future and their profession.