Abstract:

In recent decades, the school management has been envisioned as a fundamental condition for improving the quality of education. Throughout the process of democratization of Brazilian education much has been discussed about the participatory management as an alternative to improvement in the quality of basic education. The 1988 Federal Constitution, in its article 206, enshrines the principle of democratic and participatory school management in public education, which is reaffirmed by the Guidelines and Bases for National Education in 1996. These two documents have been consolidating the Brazilian school management policies, in which the choice of Directors through elections and the training for the exercise of the function constitute two important components.

The choice of Directors through democratic processes highlights advances in school management, because it signals the change of a static model of management for a dynamic paradigm, in which schools and educational systems are seen as living organizations, characterized by a network of relationships of actors that operate and interfere. However, this change can’t conceive, alone, an efficient and effective management. A new conception of school demand management training policies for the Directors, that it be able to guarantee the autonomy of the schools as a means and not an end in itself in the search for better educational performance results.

This work aimed to identify the roles, the dynamics of work and the responsibilities of the Director of the schools of municipal education of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, from the application of the management model proposed by Henry Mintzberg. Qualitative research was carried out by the method of multiple case studies. The literature review allowed the construction of a theoretical framework on the management in educational systems and on the management model as presented by the author. The research contemplated the universe of nine public schools in the city of Juiz de Fora network and used basically non-participant observation, document analysis and semi-structured interview data collection instruments.

The survey results demonstrate that the dynamics of Directors' work is complex, troubled and fragmented, hindering the organization and planning of activities and the daily management. It was also found that the directors surveyed play the ten working papers of management, namely: structuring and scheduling of work, communication, control, lead, binding, action and negotiation. It was observed that in practice, the performance of these roles occurs simultaneously and with greater or lesser emphasis in different roles, as the skills of the Manager and the reality in which he is inserted. In the case of Directors surveyed, most papers are the gifts of communication, control, leadership and action. In turn, they play the roles of liaison and negotiation with less frequently, despite the importance of these for better relationship management team with the education network and with the school community. Finally, the directors present greater difficulty in carrying out the roles of the structuring and programming of the work depending on the complexity of the dynamics of the work of school management.

In this sense, it might identify a need for training of these managers to develop the skills necessary to understanding and performance of roles of structuring and programming of work management, liaison and negotiation.