Labor uncertainty in the promotion and recognition of Mexican teachers

Abstract

The promotion and recognition processes for basic education teachers in Mexico have undergone several modifications, elaborated and supervised by the Unidad del Sistema para la Carrera de las Maestras y los Maestros (Usicamm, Unit of the System for the Career of Teachers) and the Secretaría de Educación Pública (SEP, Secretariat of Public Education), which have generated job uncertainty among education workers. The purpose of this work is to identify the inconsistencies in these processes and the doubts they generate in teachers. The methodology for this work was the qualitative paradigm with a historical approach through documentary research. The results found show that changes have been made by the federal education authority to these procedures that have not allowed for a standardization of the items to be evaluated, their corresponding scores, nor the requirements that a teacher must meet to be considered a participant in these processes. This leads to the conclusion that the employers’ side is unaware of the desirable model of teacher in charge of the country’s public schools, inhibits the prior preparation of teachers for these processes, reinforces the labor-management power relationship and, therefore, offers a blurred vision of Mexico’s educational future.