Três ensaios sobre absenteísmo docente na educação básica brasileira

Abstract

The search for factors that affect students achievement is the subject of several studies in the Economics of Education. Although there is a consensus in theoretical research about the importance of the teacher in the classroom, in Brazil, few studies have empirically indicated the size of this impact on individual performance and on the school effect. From an unprecedented nationally representative database, Educatel, it was possible to gather socioeconomic, health, living and working conditions characteristics of Brazilian basic education teachers with data on proficiency, school and student characteristics of the Sistema de Avaliação da Educação Básica. Understanding teacher absenteeism, that is, the absence of the teacher in the classroom as an indicator of health and working conditions, it was possible to investigate which factors are related to the absence of teachers considering the different reasons for absence. The results of the first essay indicate the need for policies focused on improving the working and health conditions of teachers, these being the main factors affecting the chance of absence, teacher health care policies, shorter working hours (avoiding overload) and improvement of the work environment can generate gains for schools, reducing the costs of hiring temporary workers and relocating teachers, in addition to guaranteeing the spillovers generated by the continuity of the pedagogical project. As the results of the second and third essays indicate the absence of the teacher in the classroom has negative impacts on individual and collective results of students. The results indicated that contextual factors affect absenteeism more than individual conditions, confirming it as an indicator of health and working conditions. The second essay aims to identify the impact of the teacher's absence in the classroom on the individual gains of students in the 5th and 9th grades of the public basic education system, the results obtained from a two-stage least squares model indicated that tenured teachers have a significant impact on both subjects and, mainly, with greater magnitudes for the 9th grade in Mathematics. Finally, the third essay contributes to the literature on the school effect based on the investigation of the school effect considering the teacher in the classroom from a collective perspective, that is, at the class level. The results obtained through a multilevel study (student and class) for the 5th and 9th grade of students in the public primary education network indicated the importance of the presence of the teacher and the monitoring of the teacher in the classroom, corroborating the premise of collective impact of the teacher's presence in the classroom. The three essays build the perspective of the importance of the presence of the teacher in the classroom and the public policies that can be adopted ensuring improved quality of life, health and working conditions for professionals and better results in proficiency as a consequence of these individual and collectively.