Perceptions of Brazilian university professors on the virtues most valued in the teaching profession

Abstract Articles are now being disseminated throughout the world that highlight the way in which teachers feel and experience the profession.The present study investigated the virtues necessary to be a good teacher and how much the participants perceive that these characteristics describe them as professionals. For this, the mixed research method was used, in order to contemplate quantitative and qualitative aspects of the investigated phenomena. A total of 214 Brazilian university professors participated in this study, who answered a questionnaire formed by sociodemographic questions and two open questions about the virtues of the good teacher. The textual analysis was performed from the IRAMUTEQ software and graphically represented by similarity analysis. According to the results obtained, the virtues most valued in the teaching exercise were knowledge, temperance, justice and humanity. These results help to think about the skills and competences required in academic life, as well as the evaluation of teaching practices.