O processo de provimento do cargo de diretor(a) das escolas da rede municipal de Uberlândia (MG) entre 2013 e 2024: aproximações e distanciamentos da gestão democrática

Abstract

This research is part of the State, Policies and Management in Education research line of the Postgraduate Program in Education (PPGED) at the Faculty of Education (FACED), Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU), and is linked to the Study and Research Group on Policies, Education and Citizenship (Pólis). Its general objective is to analyze the process and deliberation mechanisms for filling the position of school principal in the units of the municipal education network of Uberlândia (MG), which is assumed as an empirical field. The specific objectives are to analyze the managerial logic of the neoliberal State and its effects on school management; to evaluate the perspective of school management emanating from the Brazilian State after the Federal Constitution of 1988, with its approaches and distances from the principles of democratic management; investigate and analyze the normative documents that guide the proposal and elaboration of public policies for school management for choosing a principal in the municipality of Uberlândia and understand the management conception of the Municipal Department of Education, regarding the choice of principals considering the time frame from 2013 to 2024. Regarding the methodological aspects, the research is based on the assumptions of qualitative research and, as procedures, develops bibliographic and documentary research. The bibliographic research was carried out in the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTD) and in the Catalog of Theses and Dissertations of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel Foundation (Capes), with the time frame from 2013 to 2024. In the documentary research, legal devices of national scope published after the Federal Constitution of 1988 pertaining to school management are analyzed, especially in relation to the provision of the position of school principal. It also includes regulations specific to the municipal education network of Uberlândia that guide school management and the process of defining the position of principal. The analytical approach is based on Bardin's (2011) content analysis. The study drew primarily on Cury (2012), Freire (1987, 1996), Gadotti (2000), Libâneo (2001), Paro (2010), Saviani (2007), Frigotto (2001), and Lima (2018). The research highlights the impacts of the neoliberal State and scientific administration on educational management, showing how neoliberal policies introduced a managerial logic focused on efficiency, productivity, and results assessment, inspired by the business model. In the Brazilian context, post-1990 educational reforms aligned with these guidelines, transforming school principals into results managers, weakening democratic processes. In this scenario, democratic management, provided for in the 1988 Constitution and the LDB, faces challenges in the face of authoritarian-centralizing legacies, which have assumed new modus operandi in the face of new neoliberal pressures. The research in the municipality of Uberlândia (2013-2024) revealed non-linear movements, marked by many conflicts and disputes. The periods of progress and approximation of democratic concepts were repressed with the support of legal proceedings, as in the context in which the public consultation of the school community was implemented for the appointment of the principal position, which was the target of judicialization, with the return to the appointment by the executive. It is concluded that the effective democratization of school management requires, in addition to specifically positive norms regarding the process of appointment of the principal, but also the cultural transformation and political principles based on participation, transparency and social justice in public education.