The COVID-19 pandemic and teachers' work: perceptions of teachers from a public university in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil

The COVID-19 pandemic required the restructuring of educational models, including the rapid transition from face-to-face to remote education. The aim of this qualitative research was to understand the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on undergraduate professors' work and health at a public university in the state of Sao Paulo. Semi-structured interviews were conduct-ed with 17 undergraduate faculty of humanities, biological and exact sciences form August to Sep-tember 2020. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. From the content analysis, four the-matic categories emerged: (1) changes in the work routine and their impacts, including adjustment to remote work and the difficulties in establishing boundaries between work and their personal life; (2) changes in the dynamics between faculty and students and the possibility of rethinking teach-ing practice; (3) the relationship between faculty and the university with emphasis on the deci-sion-making process, support for the transition to remote teaching, and concerns about the quality of teaching; and (4) anguish and fears related to the pandemic that added to the set of work -re-lated stressors. Our findings showed that actions towards the communicational dynamics, as well as actions towards faculties' mental health should be implemented.