"No te puedes cansar": el rendimiento laboral docente en el sector privado desde las voces de maestros en Bogotá

Abstract

This research analyzes how teacher work performance is configured in Bogotá's private education sector through the life and work experiences of five Social Sciences teachers. A qualitative approach with phenomenological-hermeneutical design was implemented through in-depth interviews, which helped identify and problematize the characteristics of teaching practice within the private school aparatus. The theoretical framework draws on concepts of biopolitics proposed by Foucault (1975), psychopolitics developed by Han (2014), and Performance and rationalization by Martínez (2003), to understand the discourses of normalization and discipline alongside the mechanization of self-exploitation and performance in private sector teaching work. The results analysis suggests that work performance is shaped by multiple factors including precarious working conditions, work intensification, permanent surveillance, non-academic obligations, and continuous evaluation without feedback based on standardized results and parent satisfaction. Evidence shows that the transformation of education into a service within neoliberal logic has generated significant impacts on the physical, emotional, and mental stability of interviewed teachers, manifested in exhaustion, depersonalization, negative emotions associated with work, and loss of professional autonomy. The conclusions reveal that the private school aparatus reproduces social inequalities while operating under contradictory discourses that legitimize labor exploitation through narratives of vocation and self-effort that invisibilize state responsibility in protecting teachers' labor rights in the private sector. The study establishes the need for effective regulation that guarantees dignified conditions for the profession, enabling teachers' well-being and capability development on equal terms with the public education sector.