Gestão democrática: contribuições para uma escola pública de qualidade social

Abstract

This research talks about democratic management and its implications for building a school with social quality. As a general objective, we aim to understand how management can contributes to the construction of the school' s quality. The data qualitative analysis, is based on theoretical and legal references that deal with the analysis object, extracting elements of convergence between democratic management and the promotion of the school' s social quality. Therefore, it is consisted of a bibliographic and documental type of research, based on authors from the educational area such as Paro (2003, 2007, 2016), Luck (1997, 2009, 2013), Gadotti (1994, 1997, 2013), Freitas (2005, 2014), Libâneo (2001, 2012), besides those from other areas such as, Rosenfield (1994) from Philosophy and Benevides (1994) from Sociology, as well as some educational policy documents such as the educational legislation (in general) and the education plans in a specific way. The analysis provided us with reflections on the rupture of centralizing and segregating patterns of school organization, by means of an authoritarian and individualistic organizational culture. That means that a management that intends to be democratic, must be followed by an experience based on the socialization of its activities and responsibilities, collective work and the participation of all the social actors involved in the educational process. As a result, it was possible to identify that the democratic management, as an essential element in the construction of a school with social quality, it is comprised by the participation and engagement of the school and local communities in its collective decisions, the power decentralization, the strengthening of democratic mechanisms of participation and re-evaluation of our daily practices in the exercise of citizenship, as well as the strengthening of autonomy. Therefore, it is concluded that these elements are essential for the consolidation of an anti-authoritarian and socially referenced school management. Thus, a school with social quality is that where all of its members are committed to the improvement of the educational work offered there, as well as the social transformation and consequently the overcoming of social inequalities.