This article aims to identify the influence of formal education, professional and social experience in the development of managerial skills of principals of state public schools. The theoretical framework has addressed the concepts of managerial skills and learning, and issues of public education. The study was conducted in 58 state public schools of basic education, located in a capital city of the Brazilian Northeast. As a basis for the research, we used the study of Cavalcanti and Galvão (2009), which identified a set of managerial skills of school principals. Data analysis was performed using factor analysis, which enabled the characterization of ten managerial skills, which were called technical, social and behavioral. Each principal assigned a weight to skills in terms of importance, besides the level of influence of formal education, professional and social experience in their development. The results revealed that, in the ambit of importance, family-school integration, team disciplining and lifelong learning were the most prominent skills. Regarding the level of influence, experience, both linked to the professional and social contexts, had the highest influence in the development of the principals' skills. In all cases, our attention was drawn to the fact that formal education makes a contribution of less impact in the development of managerial skills. We recommend that the same study be conducted in other cities in the state or with school administrators of state schools in other Brazilian states.
Skills; principals; public schools; formal education; experience
