Abstract
In this study, we analyze values, ideas and practices that regulate the logic of school referrals carried out by education and health professionals. We investigated the referrals from a school to an external Evaluation Center, both of the public education system of the city of São Paulo. We interviewed teachers, administrators, and health professionals. We also examined referral reports containing school complaints and other documents. Data revealed that the school tends to refer students who do not meet standard performance and behavior expectations. In this particular context, it did seem that the school was blaming the students and their families for their pedagogical difficulties. However, it is important to remember that the school was not denying its responsibility for pedagogical shortcomings. In their representations, both the school and the evaluation center admit harboring mutual feelings of resentment. The school raises objections concerning the work of the professionals at the center and vice versa. The school and the evaluation center seem to be equally clueless as to how to integrate their knowledge in order to truly help the referred students.
Keywords:
School complaints; schools; representation