The constitution of the identity of professors in advanced degree courses of two higher education institutions : a study based on the relations of power and the roles in organizations

This article aims to investigate the constitution of the identity of professors in advanced degree courses in a public university and in a private university. Research based on the qualitative approach, characterized as a study of multiple cases, and based on in-depth interviews carried out with 15 professors. Theoretical framework grounded in studies of identity, social roles and power in organizations. As a result, it evidenced that the professor identity is permeated by meanings derived from the socialization processes along the academic path, so that the choice of the teaching career and the meanings attributed to teaching and research were mainly built through everyday interaction experienced with their professors and students. It was observed that professors take on multiple roles in educational institutions, which together with the requirements for publication of scientific articles, cause a feeling of anguish in these actors, given that the time required to perform such a range of activities turns out to engage not only the space of universities, but other spheres of the professor’s social life.