(Im)possibilities of the revitalization from the Political-Pedagogical Project of a Municipal Teaching Network in a collaborative perspective^*

Abstract

The article results from a collaborative research-action which the investigative theme was the revitalization of the Political-Pedagogical Project (PPP) of a Municipal Teaching Network. On the network scope (besides others local devices, as the Municipal Education Plan, for example), the PPP is a divice that, articulated to the other legal devices, condenses the educational ideology that confers an identity, guides the organization and the collective educational actions. Through the need to revitalize the network’s PPP, the Municipality’s Education Departament resorted to the researchers’ advisory with the intention of such process was developed in a participatory research and based on collective decisions, assuring the diverse views of the actors of each educational community. Thus, in this text, we make an analytical-discursive clipping about the conceptions of 78 managers who participate in the process. The data, categorized through the Content Analysis Technique, arising from documentary analysis and a questionnaire, indicate the potentiality of action-research as an approach that favors action-reflection-intervention. The hindrance encountered, which had limited the collective and participatory constitution, stem from the time space devoted to the process, compromising the spaces for recflection, deepening and discussion, fundamental for the theoretical- methodological alignment and the consolidation of collective political consensus. Finally, it is commendable the posture and the challenge that the manegers, within the framework of a Municipal Education Departament, are placed in assuming in a participatory way the construction of a device of the scope of a PPP.

Political-Pedagogical Project; Democratic management; School managers

Resumo

O artigo é decorrente de uma pesquisa-ação colaborativa que teve como temática investigativa a revitalização do Projeto Político-Pedagógico (PPP) de uma Rede Municipal de Ensino. No âmbito de rede (além de outros dispositivos locais, como o Plano Municipal de Educação, por exemplo), o PPP é um dispositivo que, articulado aos demais dispositivos legais, condensa o ideário educativo que confere uma identidade, orienta a organização e as ações educativas coletivas. Mediante a necessidade de revitalizar o PPP da rede, a Secretaria de Educação do município recorreu à assessoria dos pesquisadores com o intuito de que tal processo fosse desenvolvido em uma perspectiva participativa e com base em decisões coletivas, assegurando os diversos olhares dos atores de cada comunidade educativa. Assim, neste texto, fazemos um recorte analítico-discursivo acerca das concepções de 78 gestores partícipes do processo. Os dados, categorizados por meio da Técnica de Análise de Conteúdo, oriundos da análise documental e de um questionário, indicam a potencialidade da pesquisa-ação enquanto uma abordagem que propicia a ação-reflexão-intervenção. Os entraves encontrados, que limitaram a constituição coletiva e participativa, são decorrentes do espaço temporal dedicado ao processo, comprometendo os espaços de reflexão, aprofundamento e discussão, fundamentais para o alinhamento teórico-metodológico e a consolidação de consensos políticos coletivos. Por fim, é elogiável a postura e o desafio que os gestores, no âmbito de uma Secretaria Municipal de Educação, colocaram-se ao assumirem de forma participativa a construção de um dipositivo da envergadura de um PPP.

Projeto Político-Pedagógico; Gestão democrática; Gestores escolares

Introduction

The article presents reflections around the constitutive process of the Political-Pedagogical Project (PPP) of a Municipal Education Departament (MED), elaborated through out a collaborative research-action. In a Municipal Education System, the Education Departament, as part of this system, has, among others, the attribution to watch over in a way that are being observed the legal devices that regulate Brazilian education, implementing policies, programs and projects that ensure the characteristics, specificities and local needs.

In this sense, every educational act is an intentional act established in certain political, epistemological, psychological, pedagogical, administrative, socio-historical and cultural principles. To ensure such intention, education management presumes the observation and planning of various devices ate the national, state and/or municipal levels. On that reflexive line, Lück (2009, p. 32) alludes:

To plan education and its management implies to delineate and make clear and understood in its unfolding its intention, its direction, its objectives, its scope and the perspectives of its action, besides organizing, in an articulated way, all the aspects necessary for its implemention.

It is worth emphasizing that education management suffers influences and is effective at different systemic levels from a macrostructural perspective (conceptions, beliefs and values pertaining to education, conveyed through educational organizations at the international and national levels; teaching systems; and legal devices, for example) to a microstructural perspective (conceptions, beliefs and values of educational institutions and their operandi modes, of society – especially the community surrounding the context in which the educational institutions act, composed by the students’ relatives, for example).

The analysis of these systemic interrelations points to the position of Libâneo, Oliveira e Toschi (2003, p. 220), when the authors state that they are “result of historical, ideological, economic, and political conditions existing in society – it means that at certain moments, one or another system will have greater influence over the others”. Thereby, the authors assert:

On the one hand, the educational policies and the organizational and curricular guidelines are bearers of intentionalities, ideas, values, attitudes and practices that will influence the schools and their professionals in the configuration of the formative practices of the students, determining a type of subject to be educated. On the other hand, schools’ professionals can join or resist such policies and guidelines of the school system, or else engage in dialogue with them and collectively formulate formative and innovative practices for another type of subject to be educated. In one case and another, one must know and analyze the ways in which are interrelated the educational policies, the organization and management of schools, and pedagogical practices in the classroom. (LIBÂNEO; OLIVEIRA; TOSCHI; 2003, p. 31-32).

Within a municipal education network (in addition to other local devices such as the Municipal Education Plan, for example), the PPP is a device that, articulated with other legal devices, condenses the educational ideology that confers identity, guides the organization and educational actions, as pointed out by Gadotti (2000), Veiga (2009) and Vasconcelos (2002, 2004), both on the extent of a teaching network as the institutions that integrate it. The PPP should be understood as a device that needs to be revitalized continuously and, thus, “is a theoretical-methodological instrument for the intervention and the change of reality. It is an element of organizations and integration of the practical activity of the institution in this process of transformation (VASCONCELOS, 2004, p. 169).

Thus, the PPP’s elaboration and/or revitalization, in a democratic perspective, requires the participation of the actors involved in the educational community, in order to translate the expectations, needs and characteristics of a given context, making collective decisions feasible. The Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil (1988) “enshrined the democratic management of public education as a principle, unprecedented fact in relation to the previous Constitutions” (MEDEIROS; LUCE, 2006).

The law on the Guidelines and Bases of National Education (1996) establishes that teaching will be taught, having as one of its principles the “democratic management of public education, in the form of this Law and the legislation of educations system” (BRAZIL, 1996, Art. 3º, principle VIII). Yet, the National Education Plan (BRAZIL, 2014), with the Federal Law 13.005, from 25 of June in 2014, reiterates, in one of its guidelines, the “promotion of the principle of democratic management of public education”. (Federal Constitution. Art. 2º). From this set of devices, it is possible to understand, as indicated by Medeiros and Luce (2006, p. 18-19), that:

[...] the democratic management of education is associated with the establishment of institutional mechanisms and the organization of actions that trigger social participation processes: in the formulation of educational policies; in determining the goals and purposes of education; in planning; in decision making; in the definition of resource allocation and investment needs; in the execution of the deliberations; in the moments of evaluation. These processes should guarantee and mobilize the presence of the different actors involved in this field, in terms of systems, in a general way, and in educational units – schools and universities. (Authors’ emphasis).

Therefore, the democratization of education conceived from collective participation presupposes the opening of spaces, times and instances that enable and promote the co-responsibility of all actors, and that democratic school, in the opinion of Lück (2009, p. 69-70):

[...] is one in which its participants are collectively organized and committed to promoting quality education for all. Democracy is constituted as a fundamental characteristic of societies and groups centered on the practice of human rights, recognizing not only the right of people to enjoy the goods and services produced in their context, but also, and above all, their right and duty to assume responsibility for the production and improvement of these goods and services. On this perspective, rights and duties are two inseparable concepts, so that, speaking about one, it necessarily refers to the other. And it is in this junction that a true democracy is established, built through participation qualified by citizenship and construction of the common good.

When thinking about the collective elaboration of a PPP in the range of a Department of Education, in addition to the managers who work in it, the school management team (principal and vice-principal, school supervision, educational guidance, and technical-administrative professionals, such as the school secretary) plays a key role in its constitutive process. According to Lück (2009, p. 22), the members of the management team “are the professionals responsible for the organization and administrative and pedagogical orientation of the school”, being that:

School management is one of the professional areas of education aimed at planning, organizing, leading, mentoring, mediating, coordinating, monitoring and evaluating the processes necessary for the effectiveness of educational actions aimed at promoting of student learning and training. (LÜCK, 2009, p. 23).

Seen from this perspective, “the exercise of direction, school supervision, and educational orientation constitute roles-means, which guarantee the improvement of the educational process” (LÜCK, 1981, p. 64). In this sense, this team is the responsible for coordinating the process of elaboration and/or revitalization of the PPP of the unit under its management, mobilizing the other actors and looking for ways the collective decisions are observed. Therefore, democratic management does not allow the exercise of democracy and citizenship to be experienced on a daily basis at all levels and actions involving educational action. Given this, Veiga (2009, p. 14) points out that:

[...] the main possibility of building the political-pedagogical project is the relative autonomy of the school, its capacity to delineate its own identity. This means rescuing the school as a public space, a place for debate, for dialogue, based on collective reflection. Therefore, it is necessary to understand that the political-pedagogical Project of the school will give necessary indications to the organization of the pedagogical work, that includes the work of the teacher in the internal dynamics of the classroom.

We also emphasize, in the consolidation of democratic management, the activities of collegiate bodies (for example, the School Council and student associations) that organize the participation of members of the school community in management. Thereby, it is necessary “the participation of all parents and students, not only from the direction given by public officials, avoiding, like this, the supremacy of corporate interests over collective educational interests [...]” (MEDEIROS; LUCE, 2006, p. 20).

In light of the above, in this text we present an analytical-discursive clipping in the protagonism of the managers of the teaching units in the process of revitalizing the PPP of a municipal network, focusing their conceptions on the essential elements constituting this project. Thus, initially, we contextualize the analytic-discursive theme. Subsequently, we present the methodological approach guiding the study. Next, we focus on the analysis and reflection of the results. Finally, we perform a synthesis in our final considerations.

Methodological approach

The collaborative action-research focused on the collective revitalization of the Political-Pedagogical Project of a municipal teaching network, located in the Metropolitan Region of Porto Alegre (Brazil), consisting of twenty-four teaching units. Due to the need to revitalize the PPP of the Network, the Education Department of the municipality resorted to the advisory of the researchers with the intention that such process was developed in a participatory perspective, in order to assure the diverse views of the actors of each educative community and, based on consensual collective decisions, to establish an educational identity to the Network.

As Franco (2005) points out, one of the dimensions that commonly mobilizes researchers to opt for collaborative research-action is when:

[...] the transformation search is requested by the reference group to the team of researchers [...] in which the role of the researcher will be to be part and scientify a process of change previously unleashed by the subjects of the group. (FRANCO, 2005, p. 485-486).

The option for collaborative research-action is based on the assumption that such approach:

[...] articulates a relation between theory and practice, on a real process of knowledge construction [...] the investigation itself would become action, in social intervention, enabling the researcher to effectively act on the reality studied. (MIRANDA; RESENDE, 2006, p. 514).

Authors such as Carr and Kemmis (1988), Kemmis and McTaggart (1992), Elliott (1985, 2000), Monceau (2005), Zeichner (1993, 2011), Zeichner and Diniz-Pereira (2005), Kemmis and Wilkinson (2011), Diniz-Pereira (2011), Nyambe (2011), Montecinos and Gallardo (2011), Franco and Lisita (2012), Franco (2006), Pimenta (2006) and Monteiro (2006) show, through their studies and assumptions, the contributions of research-action to the constitution and training of reflective professionals. As Carr (1996, p. 15) asserts:

[...] the fact of theorizing is part of the dialectical process of self-transformation and social change: the process by which individuals rebuild themselves and, at the same time, reconstruct their social life.

So, taking into account other studies cited based on collaborative research-action, and those already carried out by the researchers on screen in other municipal Education Departments, we took on the challenge of advising the constitutive process of the PPP, instigated by the following questions: a) What are the (im)possibilities of the collective and participatory constitution of a PPP within a municipal education network?; b) What are the mechanisms to be adopted in order to contemplate the views of the various actors involved in the educational action in a teaching network?; c) What are the facilitating elements and/or possible obstacles in the systematization of these views in order to have a consensual education identity?

Besides, in order to further accentuate the complexity of the challenge, the time available for the completion of the process was six months. In advance, we are aware that temporal space is one of the key factors for achieving results in a collaborative research-action, since the craved interventions and transformations often require a revision of conceptions, behaviors and attitudes that are found rooted in the repertoire of each person. If to a personal level it can be a time-consuming process, to advance into transformations coming from a collectivity is, undoubtedly, a major challenge. However, we are in the hypothesis that if it is an education network, whose management in its second mandate was under the participatory motto, probably the professionals who work in it share educational conceptions and, on this, the existence of a consensus would not be hampered. As Boufleur (2001, p. 92-93) says, the political consensus:

[...] it amounts on an agreement in which is sought a certain degree of concordance around the meaning or goals of schooling. It is not a question of denying singularities and differences, nor of the requirement of individuals to give up ideological and value conceptions, since it is precisely the assumption of plural society, of the existence of individuals with different purposes, which places the construction of a consensus as necessary condition for the viability of collective action such as education.

Taking into account the assumptions made explicit, we outline a proposal for intervention-action together with the Education Department and its pedagogical and management advisory team (a group we call the coordination team, with five members in it). This proposal was based on the documentary analysis (GIL, 2010) of devices, such as the Educational Proposal of the municipality in force, the Municipal Education Plan, Ordinances, PPP of each educational unit, among others. Also, articulated to the present ideas in such devices, we propose dimensions to be contemplated, considering international discussions about the right to quality education contained in documents of which Brazil is signatory.

After five analytical-formative meetings (approximately two hours each, carried out at the beginning of the process) with the coordination team, we validated and aligned this proposal with the yearnings and expectations regarding the process to be carried out, with a basic premise the collective participation. Thus, under the aegis of democratic management, the constitutive process contemplated the protagonism of several actors⁴, who were organized in groups, in order to make possible the participation of all.

In the text on screen, we make a cut and look at the protagonism of the managers of the educational units (principals, vice-principals, school supervisors, and educational counselors). Were part of the process 38 principals and vice-principals; 22 educational supervisors and 26 educational counselors, between the ages of 30 and 59, whose teaching time ranges from 0 to 34 years, contemplating from those who are at the beginning of the career to those who are close to the retirement. From the group of principals and vice-principals, 3 are masters, 34 have lato sensu graduate studies and 4 only have college degree. From the supervisors group, 1 is master, 23 have lato sensu graduate studies and 3 have college degree. In relation to the counselors, 1 is master, 23 have lato sensu graduate studies and 2 have college degree.

Collaborative research-action, in methodological terms, has characteristics and specificities that distinguishes it from other types of research. As this is a participatory approach, which aims the intervention in a given reality through action-reflection, in this study we observe the steps suggested by Kemmis e McTaggart (1992), which will be explained in this next section, articulated to the analysis and discussion of the results.

Analysis and discussion of results

In this section, we present the reflections from the analysis of the data collected during each of the constituent stages of research-action, which were analyzed based on the Content Analysis Technique. Such technique makes it possible, through systematic procedures of content description, to make inferences about the production and/or reception of a given message (BARDIN, 2011). Hereafter, is a reflection about the course taken in each of the stages.

First stage: diagnosis-recognition and the strengthening of group identity

The first stage of the research-action focuses on the realization of the diagnosis- recognition of individuals and groups that constitute a collectivity. Since the basis of the research-action is based on the action-reflection and intervention, articulating theory and practice, the group’s commitment and collaborative attitude is essential. In this way, strategies are put into action at this stage with purpose of knowing the characteristics and demands of the collective, narrowing interpersonal relations, strengthening the protagonism and the feeling of belonging and empowerment.

Like this, processes involving groups of people in order to externalize their conceptions, expectations and ways of acting in certain situations, seeking to mobilize them to a collective construction, require that those who lead them are in tune with their realities. Within the same teaching network there are the contextual differences that make each teaching unit singular. However, in order to ensure an educational identity, it is necessary to have consensual points regarding this mission, vision, principles and foundations that underpin the educational ideology of this network, expressed in the political-pedagogical project, being that each teaching unit will ensure the observation of its specificities through its own PPP.

At this stage, after presentation, discussion and validation of the proposal regarding the revitalization process of the PPP, we applied a questionnaire (MARCONI; LAKATOS, 2006; BOGDAN; BIKLEN, 1994) with open questions in order to characterize the protagonists of the study and to identify their conceptions about issues pertaining to the function and revitalization of the Political-Pedagogical Project. Based on tabulated and analyzed data, we focused on the reflection about the diagnosis performed with the group. In this bias, “the fact of theorizing is part of the dialectical process of self-transformation and social change: the process by which individuals rebuild themselves and at the same time rebuild their social life” (CARR, 1996, p. 15).

When asked about the positive aspects of the role, the principals and vice-principals emphasized the possibility of participating in the whole school work process; integration with the school community; the management of the whole school; constant training and professional qualification; learning and knowledge. The supervisors emphasized the team work; the sharing of experiences; the student learning monitoring; proposing projects and actions to improve the quality of teaching; the support they offer to the teachers’ team and the love for work. The counselors emphasized the bond with the school community; the assistance they provide to learners and their families; personal and professional growth; the contact and the understanding of the other for the management of conflicts.

Among the challenges encountered by the principals and vice-principals in the exercise of the function, was mentioned the shortage of financial resources; the lack of professionalism of the team; lack of autonomy; the physical structure; the lack of participation of the school community; the human resources and bureaucracies of the Municipal Education Department. Supervisors emphasized human resources and lack of dialogue. For the counselors, the lack of a support and protection network (physical and psychological health, guardianship council, etc.), the lack of support from families and the demands and school bureaucracy are the biggest challenges.

To qualify the exercise of the function, one of the alternatives suggested by the principals and vice-principals was the continuous training. They mentioned the need for specific training in the area of management and planning. The need for strengthening, integration and greater commitment of the team was also mentioned. They referred to the need for more financial resources; autonomy for schools; the choice of the management team by the school’s own management; greater involvement of the school community and the joint construction of documents. For the supervisors, it is also essential to continue investing in the training and qualification of professionals, observing the actual training demands of each one; human resources, and physical material appropriate to the reality of each school.

To the counselors, it is fundamental to form an effective support network with other agencies or secretariats; investment in training and qualification of professionals, spaces for sharing experiences; partnership with families; practice collectivity and team work. With regard to continuous training, the management team evidenced those promoted by the school itself and those promoted by the MED, highlighting pedagogical meetings, lectures, seminars and study groups, among others. The need for the training to contemplate the training contents that are in accordance with the real demands of the professionals and the financial incentive to the training in lato and stricto sensu graduate studies were emphasized by the management teams.

It is noteworthy that the managers refer to autonomy, and from the documentary analysis and the records of speeches that we carried out with the coordination team, the modes of management are based on the perspective of dialogue, participation and collective decision making. We know that there is a possibility of distancing between what is established in the devices, what is spoken and what is actually executed. In this way, this issue deserves a greater deepening in order to unveil what managers understand by autonomy and how it is effective in the relationship between maintainer and maintained, and within themselves. In a democratic management, this is a crucial and challenging point: How to preserve autonomy in the scope of a maintainer, of each unit of teaching maintained and of each professional who work in it, preserving the educational identity? In this study, we have not been able to deepen this issue. However, we have resorted to Medeiros and Luce (2006, p. 21), when the authors emphasize that:

The autonomy does not dispense relation and articulation between schools, system of education and power, neither is the freedom and the direction given by only one social segment. [...] Autonomy is always a collective, the school community, and to be legitimate and legitimized depends on this collective to recognize its identity in a broader and diverse whole, which in turn will collect it as a part of itself. Autonomy, therefore, is built up at the confluence, in the negotiation of various logics and interests; happens in a field of forms in which are confronted and balanced different powers of influence; internal and external. (Authors’ emphasis).

By emphasizing that continuous training takes as its starting point the training demands of the professionals, managers point a central aspect present in the discussion of authors, such as Candau (1996), Shön (1998), Perrenoud (1999), Charlot (2005), Nóvoa (2007) and Imbernón (2009), when they deal with initial and/or continuous training. Of these, we highlight the position of Nóvoa when the author alludes that:

Most continuous training programs have proven to be very useless [...] The concept of Lifelong Education forces us to think the opposite, building the training devices from the needs of people and the profession, investing in the construction of collective work networks that are the support of training practices based on sharing and professional dialogue. (NÓVOA, 2007, p. 9).

The involvement of the school community and the creation of support networks for educational action emphasized by the managers refer to the idea of the complexity of the educational field (BORDIEU, 2004) as a:

[...] field of knowledge fundamentally mixed, where cross, interpellate, and sometimes fertilize themselves, on the one hand, knowledge, concepts and methods originating from multiple disciplinary fields, and, on the other hand, knowledge, practices, ethical and political ends. (CHARLOT, 2006, p. 9).

Such complexity and miscegenation require multiple actors to articulate in order to be able to face the challenges they face. The school has specific purposes for it and to successfully fulfill its role, it is indispensable that everyone participates as a mobilizing mechanism:

[...] of consensus, of communion and convergence of objectives and interests, finally, in order to guarantee a climate and culture conducive to the effective achievement of educational objectives. (TORRES, PALHARES, 2009, p. 94).

Thus, the educational action “demands not only a large functional framework, but also the participation of the community, parents and various organizations, in order to fulfill it with the necessary quality” (LÜCK, 2009, p. 19). After this first stage, the researchers went on the second stage of research-action. It is noteworthy that the set of stages cannot be designed in a linear way, being that the contents are continually resumed.

Second-stage: action planning

In the second stage, actions are planned and discussed collectively. Formative spaces become central, so that there is a link between theory and practice, consolidating action-reflection. So, “In this process of continuous reflection on action, which is an eminently collective process, space is opened to form researchers” (FRANCO, 2012, p. 119). The MED and the units of education under its management are social organizations that have a purpose or a reason to exist (mission), an idea or purpose to be achieved (vision) and principles (values) that are considered the bases of their performance (CHIAVENATO, 1983). This set of elements gives these organizations an organizational identity.

Thereby, “The clear the identity [...] that is, how it is, what its reason to be, its beliefs, values – more coherent will be its goals, behaviors and actions” (PONCHIROLLI, 2009, p. 59). Organizational identity interferes with the constitution of the professional identity of those who work in it. In the case of educational professionals, two spheres are articulated in the structuring of their identity, the “identity for themselves and identity for others” (CARROLO, 1997, p. 26). The first, in the subjective sphere, is when the identity desired by the professional involves “the biographical path of each one, the personal perspective of the space of formation and its personal implication the process of formation” (CARROLO, 1997, p. 29). The second, in the objective sphere, when the identity for others is “translated by the point of view of colleagues and trainers about relational dynamics and the evaluation of the professional profile, as well as the recognition of the adjustment of the candidates to the profession” (CARROLO, 1997, p. 29).

Therefore, three meetings were held with the members of the management team of the educational units with the intention of deepening, reflecting, and proposing the principles that would define the educational identity of the municipality, to be validated by all protagonists.

The analysis of the PPP of each teaching unit allowed us to verify the existence of a plurality of visions in terms of theoretical references and relative to the evaluation system in each teaching unit. Facing this, the coordination team emphasized the need to make a diagnosis about the evaluation system (with a view to a unit of action in terms of network) and theoretical references that could support the educational proposal assumed by the Network, based on socio-interactionism. These strategies were put in place in the third stage of the research.

Third stage: implementation of action strategies, observation-registration process and evaluation

In the third stage, the outlined strategies are put into action. Based on the diagnosis made in the previous stages and based on the mission and vison of the Municipal Education Department, we listed a set of principles submitted for analysis, discussion and validation by the management teams of the teaching units. We corroborate with the position of Lück (2009, p. 19), when the author states that: “As a social process of the human formation, education is based on foundations, principles and guidelines to guide it and give unity and consistency to educational actions promoted by schools”.

We opted for the application of an advisory instrument that required the assignment of values (on a scale of 0 to 10) to each of the 11 principles. In possession of the tabulated data⁵, the principles valued between 7 and 10 were submitted to the analysis of the coordination team. Out of this process, from the total of 11, a set of seven principles (or values) resulted, being them: a) Education in Human Rights; b) Educator Community; c) Democratic Management; d) Full Time Education; e) Food and Nutrition Education; f) Scientific Education; and g) Continuous Training.

According to Tamayo (2005, p. 176): “Organizational values constitute socially accepted cultural forms to express the needs and interests of the organization as a group and as an institution”. The author continues: “Both organizational and personal values are principles that orientate and guide the lives of individuals and groups. In case of the organization they orientate the organizational life.” (TAMAYO, 2005, p. 176).

When asked about the instruments to be adopted to express learning outcomes, the opinions of the management teams converged only in relation to the adoption of a descriptive opinion in Child Education. At the other levels and modalities there was no consensus, being suggested such instruments as descriptive opinions, notes, concepts, reports on learning performance, self-evaluation, portfolio and pre-defined criteria. By orientation of the PPP’s revitalization coordination team in the scope of the MED, the discussion around the instrument(s) would happen later, in order to find a common parameter for all units. In this way, the researchers did not participate in this analytical part. Evaluation, like any other procedure within the educational process, is not neutral, being related to the conceptions that each one has about it. Thus, “there is a need to be clear about what we mean by evaluation, its goals and purposes” (DAVIS; GROSBAUM, 2002, p. 105).

The authors (with three or more indications) that were cited by the set of managers whose assumptions would be in consonance with the educational proposal of the municipality are: Paulo Freire, Lev S. Vygostsky, Jean Piaget, Celso Vasconcelos, Edgar Morin, Emília Ferreiro, Fátima Salles, Jussara Hoffmann, Mário Cortella, Pedro Demo, Cipriano Luckesi, Fernando Hernandez, Philippe Perrenoud, Moacir Gadotti, Içami Tiba and Madalena Freire. This was one of the critical points of the study, because due to the time, it was not possible to discuss, reflect on and deepen the discursive focus of each of these authors and how they would be in line with educational proposal.

It is necessary to be careful not to fall in the trap of a theoretical eclecticism or to reduce the complexity of an educational action, disregarding the multiple constituent dimensions of the human being that interfere in the teaching and learning processes, and those related to organization, planning and evaluation of such action. We need to be aware that there is no theory that handles all the dimensions that involve the educational action and, in view of such complexity, for the constitution of a proposal, is necessary a theoretical network composed of a set of assumptions that handle, among others, philosophical foundations (focusing on the epistemological and ethical dimensions), psychological, socio-anthropological and cultural, pedagogical and administrative, for example.

With the elements considered essential by the coordination team for the preparation of the document, the next step was the structuring and writing of the PPP. As requested by the coordination team, the document should be written by the managers, in the scope of the MED, responsible for advising the different areas (such as Child Education, Education of Youth and Adults, etc.). A leadership of each of the segments assumed the process of writing with their peers, being the text submitted to the analysis and advisory of the researchers.

In spite of a positive intention, we identified in this action another critical point of the process, that is, the differentiated styles of writing and the fragmentation of the principles, being seen and analyzed from the context of the action of the responsible manager, that compromised, in a way, a systemic and articulated vision. The advisory of the researchers in this process of writing, revision and reconstruction would require a longer time of work, which the group did not have. The document produced was sent to be analyzed, discussed and validated by the collective of the protagonists of the study. In our view, this last phase should be held seminars, plenary sessions and working groups should be held in the last phase to deepen the content of the document, to redimension aspects considered necessary and to validate the document. Finally, we move on to the fourth stage, at which point we reflect on the process accomplished.

Fourth stage: reflection and reorganization

The last stage closes the first phase of collaborative research-action and is aimed at the general reflexive synthesis about the entire investigative process. The study objectives, the mechanisms and strategies adopted, the main findings and limits of the study, and emerging issues and challenges are returned. From this synthesis are extracted elements that, is possible, will be worked in the second phase of the research-action, thus ensuring the idea of spiral movement (LEWIN, 2006) or cyclical spirals (BARBIER, 2002, p. 117), which makes feasible and implies “the recursive effect in function of a permanent reflection on the action”. As Franco says (2012, p. 119):

The reflexive spirals allow the return to the lived, the reinterpretation of the understood, revisions of the already realized, correctness of perspectives and possibilities. They guarantee a formative evaluation of the process and the objectification of the conquests of the group. It is an eminently pedagogical, collective and shared process.

Franco (2012, p. 121) continues to explain that the reflexive spiral movement enables:

[...] the planning, the action, the reflection, the research, the resignification and the replanning in a movement that seeks actions increasingly adjusted to collective needs; that produces new reflections for the deepening of the research. (FRANCO, 2012, p. 121).

The findings of the study indicate the possibilities of research-action as an approach that favors action-reflection-intervention. However, the collective revitalization of the PPP, foreseeing an educational identity, requires, in our understanding, the consideration of some basic assumptions that, in a certain way, respond to the questions that we made preliminarily. The obstacles encountered, that limited the collective and participatory constitution, are due, on the one hand, to the time space dedicated to the process, compromising the spaces for reflection, deepening and discussion, fundamental for the theoretical and methodological alignment. On the other hand, even if it seems a contradiction, personal conceptions, regardless of the time frame in which a study is carried out, sometimes do not change because they are crystallized.

At the core of our work was the revision of conceptions about educational action, aiming at a collective consensus for an educational identity. This undoubtedly requires attitudinal changes that people are not always willing to perform for a variety of reasons. Our initial hypothesis was partially refuted, considering that we did not find a unit in terms of Network. On this, the most extensive spaces and formative times are essential to consolidate collaborative groups, to reflect on the power relations, resistances and attitudes the compromise collective political consensus. Lastly, it is commendable the attitude and the challenge that the managers, in the scope of a Municipal Education Department, were placed in assuming the construction in a participatory form of a device of the magnitude of a Political-Pedagogical Project. Certainly, despite the highlighted limits, the experience can be considered successful, contributing to the advancement of the discussions, both about the potentialities of a collaborative research-action and the importance of the PPP, either within a municipal Education Department or each teaching unit.

Final considerations

The experience fulfilled, whose reflections are shared throughout the text, point to the potential of collaborative research-action as a medium for the formation, intervention and revision/transformation of any educational dimension, provided that such process is assumed collectively. The conduct of a process with the amplitude required for the revitalization of a legal device guiding educational action, such as the PPP, in the proposed time space, might have been more successful if the experience of collective construction was already part of the culture of this Network.

As we alluded earlier, we found that this was not the reality of this context, which in itself generated several impasses. From these impasses, perhaps the greatest was the position of resistance on the part of some managers of the MED itself, in relation to their epistemological and pedagogical convictions and beliefs, wanting to assert their positions. In a way, this posture generates divisions in the group, compromising the collective elaboration of the final version of the PPP.

Whereas any device “is validated not by its intrinsic content, but by the consensual form in which it is constructed and expressed, as a result of a process of discursive elucidation” (MARQUES, 1990, p. 21), we must bear in mind that “any organization that wishes to establish and develop a participatory practice must be based on the exercise of dialogue” (VEIGA, 2004, p. 59). As an organization, the school is a “human-driven collective, coordinated, goal-oriented, controlled and crossed by the power question” (HUTMACHER, 1999, p. 58). Therefore:

The functioning of a school organization is the result of a compromise between the formal structure and the interactions that take place within it, especially between groups with different interests. (NÓVOA, 1999, p, 25).

To this end, managers are required to be committed, to have leadership, and to be able to lead and manage administrative and pedagogical processes and procedures, especially the management of people in order to build cultures of dialogue, participation and commitment of all those involved in the educational community.

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• 4
  - The full study contemplated the role of the managers who work in the Municipal Department of Education, the managers of the educational units of the Network (principals, vice-principals, educational supervisors, educational counselors, teachers, technical and administrative staff), teachers, fifth and ninth grade students, Education of Youth and Adults, parents and/or members of School Council. Based on other studies carried out by the researchers, which contemplate and consider children’s protagonism, in this study the participation of small children occurred through the production of conversation circles, mediated and registered by the teachers in a collective text. Although it is not the analytical focus of this text, as our clipping rests on the managers, we consider it important to register the fact of the reduced number of returns of the records made, and those that were returned presented incipient content. This situation mobilizes us to reflect on the difficulty that the educators themselves have in contemplating and systematizing the conceptions, ideas and opinions of young children, which is also observed when we verify the small number of researches that consider children’s protagonism.
• 5
  - The same advisory procedure was adopted in relation to the other protagonists of the study, and the instrument was adapted to each group, namely: teachers, fifth and ninth grade students, Education of Youth and Adults, parents and/or members of School Council. Therefore, the final set of guiding principles of educational identity of the educational network resulted from the analysis, systematization and validation of the protagonists’ totality, with the final endorsement of the coordination team.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  03 Sept 2018
• Date of issue
  2018

History

• Received
  12 May 2017
• Reviewed
  14 Nov 2017
• Accepted
  06 Feb 2018