Conselho escolar: desafios e novas possibilidades de promoção da participação democrática em escolas estaduais de Governador Valadares

Abstract

The present dissertation was developed in the context of the Professional Master in Management and Evaluation of Education of the Center for Public Policies and Education Evaluation of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (CAEd / UFJF). The academic work carried out aimed at investigating the way in which democratic participation occurs in the state schools of Valadares and how the Regional Superintendence of Education (SRE) of Governador Valadares can improve its performance in order to contribute to the consolidation of democratic participation in these institutions. It is assumed that, as regards the treatment of democratic management, the lack of planning, as well as disarticulated actions among SRE sectors have favored the poor performance of the Collegiates, causing a detrimental separation between the Superintendence and the school counselors. The identification of this problem situation was based on the observation of the institutional context of the SRE Governador Valadares and the collection of evidence with the Regional Coordination of School Councils and the National Program for Strengthening School Councils. The study of the subject was developed in light of the current legislation and theoretical references such as Dallari (1984), Cury (2002; 2007), Paro (1992, 1998), Riscal (2010), Conti and Silva (2010), Frey (2005), Vaz (2003), Alves and Moreira (2004). The objectives defined for this academic work are: to describe the competences that the legislation and the norms of teaching confer to the School Collegiate, observing if the recommended action is concretized in the quotidian of the state schools of Valadares; verify, through evidence collection, research and data analysis, the institutional contribution of SRE Governador Valadares so that the functions of these Councils are effectively fulfilled; and propose actions that favor the improvement of the performance of SRE Governador Valadares next to the School Councils so that these are strengthened as legitimate instances of participation and democratic management in the scope of the state public schools of the same municipality. Three themes were taken as guiding axes of this study: democratic management as a principle of national education; the conditioning factors of democratic participation; and new possibilities for building democratic participation in the context of the Brazilian public administration. In this dissertation, a structuring and investigation of a management case is used as a research methodology, with a semi-structured interview with school directors and a questionnaire applied to the counselors of all the state schools in Valadares. The analysis of the data resulting from the application of these instruments made it possible to identify problems in the functioning of the School Collegiates. Therefore, the present study was concluded with the proposition of an Educational Action Plan (PAE), elaborated from three main axes: i) the closer relations between the SRE / GV and the School Councils (suggesting the creation and the implementation of a virtual platform and an app as auxiliary tools of this approximation process); ii) the composition of instances of school political participation; iii) the improvement of school-community interaction.