Teachers face situations on a daily basis that go beyond the barrier of actions related exclusively to their pedagogical and teaching practice. The decisions made at these times are directly related to the teacher's actions and the directions his or her students may take. In his work Pedagogy of Autonomy, Paulo Freire (2017) brings, among other knowledge that he deems necessary for teaching practice, common sense and ethics. The aim of this article is to investigate teaching performance, viewing it as something that goes beyond the attributions assigned to it. It also addresses the concepts of common sense and ethics in the Freirean view, and reflects on their influence on the practical action of the teacher and how than can effectively be made applicable to the teacher. This qualitative research analyses the words of three Basic Education teachers on "common sense" and "ethics", seeking to understand how they identify the materiality of these concepts in their pedagogical practice.