Abstract
This article presents an analysis of the work of social workers at the Federal Institute of Education of Santa Catarina, in relation to the process of building professional identity. From the end of the 2000s onwards, there was an expansion in the number of social workers working in educational policy, with the constitution of the National Student Assistance Program and the Federal Network of Professional, Scientific and Technological Education, mainly required for the implementation of student assistance actions. The demands, requisitions and working conditions are elements that support the construction of the ethical-political project of the profession, and reflecting on such aspects makes it possible to understand reality beyond its immediate appearance. This study, based on historical-dialectical materialism, was developed based on bibliographic and documental research and on field research, using the questionnaire to collect data. The results point out limits and possibilities to the work of social workers at the Institute, demonstrating that the construction of professional identity occurs in the midst of the contradiction between the determinations of salaried work, to which social workers are subject, and the social direction that is sought to be imprinted on professional practice, with a view to materializing the professional project.
Keywords:
social service; professional identity; fundamentals of social service