Gestão escolar, gênero e sexualidade: práticas e documentos normativos oficiais nas escolas estaduais de Ponta Porã-MS

Abstract

The practice of school management in addressing issues of gender and sexuality has been shaped by pedagogical, institutional, and sociopolitical challenges that affect the daily life of public schools. Situated within the field of Education, Teacher Education, and Educational Practices, this study is guided by the following research problem: how do school administrators in state schools in Ponta Porã, Mato Grosso do Sul, understand and assign meaning to their actions regarding gender and sexuality within the everyday context of school management? From this perspective, the general objective is to analyze how these understandings are constituted and expressed in management practices, considering the context of the investigated schools. The specific objectives are: to examine the state normative documents that guide the work of school leadership teams in the public education system of Mato Grosso do Sul; to understand how those responsible for institutional management approach gender and sexuality in everyday educational practices; to reflect on the meanings attributed by participants to the relevance of debates on gender and sexuality within educational contexts; and to analyze school leaders’ perceptions regarding the impacts of current legislation on the promotion and guarantee of students’ rights in the state school system. The study is grounded in Decolonial Feminist Studies and adopts a qualitative approach developed through three investigative movements: bibliographic review, documentary analysis of educational regulations from the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, and narrative research based on semi-structured interviews and autoethnographic interlocutions. Fifteen school administrators participated in the study, and their narratives were analyzed through discourse analysis. The findings reveal a mismatch between the formal recognition of diversity in normative documents and its materialization in school practices, which remain marked by diffuse, reactive, and weakly structured approaches. The study also identified gaps in professional training, institutional silencing, the presence of naturalized prejudices, tensions in relationships with families and the school community, and challenges in implementing diversity-oriented policies, factors that limit the realization of democratic school management. On the other hand, practices of welcoming, dialogue, and mediation emerged as possibilities for challenging these normative constraints and fostering more inclusive actions. It is concluded that school management constitutes a strategic and contested space whose practice requires recognition of the political nature of education, the strengthening of continuous professional development processes, and a commitment to actions guided by equity, social justice, and the transformation of relationships within educational spaces.