Fortalecimento de Conselhos Escolares: propostas e práticas em municípios sul-mato-grossenses

Abstract

This research aims at examining the relations between local initiative, specific technical support from the União a Conselhos Escolares and profits shown in the Basic Education Developmental Rate (IDEB). We try to answer the following questions: have the proposals and the practices concerned to the strengthening of the School Councils had an impact on the administration of municipal education in order to promote the elevation of its IDEB rates? What does it reveal as for the relations between the Union and the Municipality? Therefore, we have performed a qualitative research, having as our empirical field ten municipal school chains from the state of Mato Grosso do Sul that obtained high results in the IDEB/2007. The data was collected by means of a questionnaire answered by civil servants from the Municipal Education Department from the selected chains, who are responsible for verifying school management and also by means of semi-structured interview conducted with the municipal education directors for the 2005-2008 administration and the advisors and technicians that form the current board of the Departments. First of all, we have performed bibliographical studies which allowed us to apprehend some recommended and practiced models of school administration and of School Council in the current educational literature as well as increasing the knowledge with the aim of works in the field of political sciences, of conceptions of democracy and of participation that are associated with distinct meanings given to democratic management in education. Secondly, by means of documental analyses, we have identified the Brazilian politics geared to the basic education administration, paying special attention to the characterization of the Programa Nacional de Fortalecimento dos Conselhos Escolares – PNFCE (National Program for the Strengthening of School Councils). It has been noticed that the politics for strengthening the School Councils is in fact constituted as a secondary initiative from MEC among many others geared to the basic education in the country. So as to continue by means of a content analysis, we have tried to identify the proposals and the practices of the municipalities which were designed for the particular purpose of strengthening the School Councils, drawing special attention to the possible local impacts of the PNFCE. It has been verified that the strengthening ofthe School Councils is not within the major worried of the municipal school chains that participated of this sample since from 2005 on they are just basically the improvement of IDEB and the teachers’ formation. The analysis and the interpretation of the obtained data have led to the following conclusions: (a) a gradual decline in the interest for the democratization of the administration has been occurring in the municipal school chains, while a good school performance has become the most important reason for worries; (b) the managerial administration is a practice which is rising in popularity soas to re-mean the mechanisms for democratic administration from an economic point of view and a liberal and plural conception of democracy; (c) the strengthening of the School Councils is not a politics in the observed municipal school chains where the PNFCE has not had an impact over the administration of its schools, revealing low cooperation between the municipalities and the Union; (d) there is no evidence that the practices of democratic administration based on a republican conception of democracy have contributed to the profits in the IDEB in the municipal chains. However, the managerial practices geared to the achievement of results have been found in all cases and they might have contributed to the improvement in this index, revealing a higher level of collaboration between Union and municipality.