This article is the result of a survey that aimed to understand professional identity trajectory six university professors and analyze the meanings they attribute to teaching. The investigation was treated methodologically qualitative research. To this end, semi-structured interviews, using the recorder, in which the teachers had to offer explanations, the reader, more elements for understanding aspects revealed about their career paths and how mean their teaching were performed. Processing of information occurred through content analysis. The results show that the meanings of work in contemporary appear diverse, interwoven, ambivalent and contradictory. This diversity is characterized by the complexity of their own identity, always in the constitution, and also because of the world is constantly changing, especially the world of work, which ultimately affect the university teaching job, also reflecting a reconfiguration of professional identity.
identitary trajectories identity; significance of teaching; university teachers