Abstract:

The reform movement of brazilian education is an important part of the process of democratization of the country which began in the mid-1980. This reform movement, similar to what was being developed internationally, faces towards the achievement of efficiency (rationalization in the use of resources), the effectiveness (quality of results) and equity (equality), based on decentralization of management processes. In order to facilitate a more targeted and effective educational action, the law of Guidelines and Bases of education (LDB), established in 1996, the autonomous management of schools as one of the most important principles of the restructuring of public education in Brazil in search of quality, troubleshooting and individualized educational and social formation of active and participatory subjects.

However, in addition to the macro difficulties for construction of educational management autonomy in Brazil – low cooperation between Federation units, imbalance in the distribution of powers and responsibilities between the organs of the education system and school's institutional embrittlement –, the schools have difficulty in building their autonomy, which is due mainly to the unpreparedness of the managers to conduct the mediation process between the public policies for education and the demands of the local community. Studies indicate that many problems experienced in management are directly related to the unpreparedness of managers to carry out the multiple roles that the job requires.

In this sense, the present article brings a reflection on the dynamics of work and the roles of directors of public schools in Brazil from the preliminary results of a qualitative research held in four schools of a municipal public education system of the State of Minas Gerais. The choice of schools was based on the grade achieved in the IDEB – basic education development index – index developed in order to measure the performance of the Brazilian educational system. Among the schools chosen, two had good performance in the IDEB 2011 and two lower than expected performance.

Through the observation of roles played by school directors in the daily management, showed a dynamic work complex, troubled and fragmented, with the simultaneous exercise of multiple roles. Such dynamics hampers the planning, organization and, consequently, the control of school activities. However, it was observed that schools that have achieved better performance in the IDEB were precisely those in which its directors have struggled to plan and structure, whenever possible, their actions. In addition to the roles of planning and structuring, it became evident the importance of connection and communication to achieve school goals. The most successful schools were those in which the managers have worked to establish dialogues with both internal and external actors, exchanging information, opening negotiations and building partnerships.

Although it is not possible to generalize the results, the research demonstrates that knowledge of the dynamics and the roles of school managers may be a first step towards the development of training policies for managers to encourage the construction and consolidation of an autonomous school management, consistent with the objectives of efficiency, quality and equity pursued for Brazilian education.

Keywords:

School management, education quality.