Direct election of school director: challenges in democratic management in the municipality of Medicilândia – Pará

Abstract

This study approaches discussions on school management and the direct election of principals and their relation with democratization in the decision-making process, seeking to reflect how the process of election of principal held at the Abraham Lincoln Municipal Elementary School, which composes the teaching network of Medicilândia-Pará, and to what extent this mechanism has favored the participation of the school and local community in the decision-making processes of school management. We seek to problematize the extent to which the process of election of principal held at the Abraham Lincoln Municipal Elementary School that composes the medicilândia-pará education network enables the organization of work in the school from the perspective of democratic management, and whether this mechanism favors the participation of the school and local community in the decision-making processes of school management. As a general objective, we analyze the perceptions of the several social subjects present in the school space about the process of direct election for the choice of school direction and its possible relation with democratic management in the Abraham Lincoln Municipal Elementary School of the municipal network of Medicilândia-Pará. Through a qualitative research based on authors such as Paro (2003; 2005; 2007; 2010), Luck (2008; 2009), Azevedo (2011), Cabral Neto (2009), Vieira (2007), Dourado (2007), our results demonstrated that our interviewees have a certain understanding of the direct electoral process for school leaders' choices, and that this mechanism significantly influences the development of democratic school management, since the research participants demonstrated knowledge about their participatory role in the daily life of the school community and often participate in school management, which is shared through councils, administrative meetings, parent-teacher meetings, PPP construction and evaluation, meetings and/or workshops on the organization of pedagogical work. With regard to municipal legislation (Laws, Resolutions and SMEs), it was possible to observe that they are in line with what our LDB and our Federal Constitution of 1988 express, with legal defined devices, delineated, well elaborated and based on the management and organization of macro pedagogical work through Semed and micro through the management of the school unit in basic school.