O plano municipal de educação no contexto de município de pequeno porte do Alto-Sertão paraibano: limites e possibilidades da participação democrática

Abstract

This research work comprises a qualitative study about the process of elaboration of the Municipal Education Plan (MEP), focusing on the perspective of democratic participation in the context of a small municipality in Alto-Sertão, Paraíba. In this sense, we sought to analyze the process of construction of the MEP, identifying the limits and possibility of the effective participation of democracy in the face of the particularities of the political scenario of small municipalities. As research field, the municipality of Joca Claudino -PB, small municipality of Alto Sertão Paraibano was adopted, considering the criterias: geographical, feasibility of access to data and the peculiar characteristic of being the first municipality of the micro-region of Cajazeiras - PB, in Alto-Sertão da Paraíba, to approve the MEP in 2015. In the development of the analyzes, it was based on the approach of the continuous cycle of policies, elaborated by Ball and collaborators, highlighting the context of influence and production of policy text. The paper proposes a reflection on the macro context of Education Policy in the bias of the paradigm of Neoliberalism, the repercussions of this scenario in the formulation of the politics of education plans in Brazil, delimiting the discussion for the field of municipalities with regard to the elaboration process of SMEs and the participation of local people. As methodological procedures for data collection, the technique of semi-structured interview and analysis of documents related to PME was adopted. Among the research findings, the predominance of subaltern participation by social subjects in the MEP elaboration process, coupled with patronizing and authoritarian practices that still permeate the political context of small municipalities, as well as the overlap of national policies in a process of construction of the SME that effectively meets the needs of the education of the municipality. Thus, there was progress in adopting actions that signaled a perspective of democratization of the formulation of the MEP, with the holding of a public hearing, constitution of the commission coordinating the preparation of MEP (2015 – 2024), with representation of various social and political segments. It is argued that the construction of democratic participation in the process of formulating local educational policies, in which the MEP, is inserted is a slow process that must be associated with continuous processes of forming a participatory culture. The analyzes were based on authors such as: Ball (1992, 1994, 2011, 2014); Bordenave (1994); Demo (1993); Bobbio (2010); Saviani (1999, 2008, 2014); Apple (2003); Vieira (2007); Golden (2016); Avritzer (2011); Gohn (2011); Mainardes (2006; 2009), among other authors who study the field of Educational Policy.