Revista Brasileira de Educação do Campo
Brazilian Journal of Rural Education
ARTIGO/ARTICLE/ARTÍCULO
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e10666
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
e10666
10.20873/uft.rbec.e10666
2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
1
Este conteúdo utiliza a Licença Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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More an Administrator and less Manager: an analysis of
the regulatory framework aimed at the public-school
management in Pará
i
Cassio Vale
1
, Gilmar Pereira da Silva
2
, Francisco Willams Campos Lima
3
1, 2
Universidade Federal do Pará - UFPA. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação na Amazônia. Rua Augusto Corrêa, nº
01. Guamá - PA. Brasil.
3
Universidade do Estado do Pará - UEPA.
Author for correspondence: cassiovale07@yahoo.com.br
ABSTRACT. This paper deals with the public-school
management in Pará state as it has been implemented through
the “Pact for Education in Pará”, which is based on the logic of
partnerships between the state and the private sector,
manifesting a strategy of educational indicators improvement.
The question consists of: how the Pact for Education regulatory
framework directs the school manager’s action in a public-
school setting? The methodology is anchored in bibliographical
research, as approached by authors who discuss school
management; document analysis, which had an important role
regarding the documents from the Pact, such as decrees. Both
procedures allowed our analyses, based on a critical and
descriptive perspective. Results show that the Pact for Education
in Pará regulatory framework drives school managers to have a
profile mostly aligned with the figure of an administrator, which
demands, surveils and accomplishes goals; in this manner, the
job excellence starts with the choice of professionals who work
within the managerial logic that has become part of public
education in Pará, especially regarding the analyzed legal texts.
Keywords: Education in Pará State, Public-School
Management, Managerial Logic.
Vale, C., Silva, G. P., & Lima, F. W. C. (2020). More an Administrator and less Manager: an analysis of the regulatory
framework aimed at the public-school management in Pará...
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
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e10666
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2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
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Mais Gerente e menos Gestor: uma análise do marco
regulatório direcionado à gestão da escola pública
paraense
RESUMO. Este artigo trata da gestão da escola pública
paraense a partir da implementação do “Pacto pela Educação do
Pará”, que é balizado na lógica de parcerias entre o Estado e a
iniciativa privada como estratégia de melhoria dos índices
educacionais. O questionamento consiste em: como o marco
regulatório do Pacto pela Educação do Pará direciona a atuação
do gestor escolar na escola pública? A metodologia está
ancorada na pesquisa bibliográfica, em interlocução com autores
que discutem sobre a gestão escolar; na pesquisa documental,
que ocupou papel essencial em função dos documentos
decorrentes desse Pacto, os quais, em geral, são decretos.
Ambos os procedimentos forneceram subsídios às análises,
assentadas na perspectiva crítico-descritiva. Os resultados
revelaram que o marco regulatório do Pacto pela Educação do
Pará induz a um direcionamento para que os gestores escolares
possam ter um perfil mais afinado com a figura do gerente que
cobra, monitora e cumpre metas, de modo que a excelência de
seu trabalho começa pelos critérios de escolha dos profissionais
afeitos à lógica gerencialista que adentrou a educação pública
paraense no que se refere à legislação analisada.
Palavras-chave: Educação Paraense, Gestão Escolar Pública,
Gerencialismo.
Vale, C., Silva, G. P., & Lima, F. W. C. (2020). More an Administrator and less Manager: an analysis of the regulatory
framework aimed at the public-school management in Pará...
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2020
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Más Administrador y menos Gestor: un análisis del marco
regulatorio direccionado a la gestión de la escuela pública
paraense
RESUMEN. Este artículo versa sobre la gestión de la escuela
pública paraense a partir de la implantación del “Pacto por la
Educación de Pará”, señalado en la lógica de asociaciones entre
el Estado y la iniciativa privada como estrategia de mejora de
los índices educativos. El cuestionamiento consiste en: ¿cómo el
marco regulatorio del Pacto por la Educación de Pará orienta la
actuación del gestor escolar en la escuela pública? La
metodología está anclada: en la investigación bibliográfica; en la
interlocución con autores que discuten acerca de la gestión
escolar; en la investigación documental, que desempeñó un
papel fundamental en la función de los documentos de dicho
Pacto, los cuales suelen ser decretos; ambos procedimientos
proporcionaron subvenciones a los análisis, asentadas en la
perspectiva crítico-descriptiva. Los resultados ponen en relieve
que el marco regulatorio del Pacto por la Educación de Pará
induce a una orientación de los gestores escolares por tener un
perfil más semejante a la figura de un gerente que exige,
monitora y cumple metas, de manera que la excelencia de su
trabajo comienza por los criterios de elección de profesionales
acostumbrados a la lógica gerencialista que se adentró en la
educación pública paraense en cuanto a la legislación
examinada.
Palabras clave: Educación Paraense, Gestión de la Escuela
Pública, Gerencialismo.
Vale, C., Silva, G. P., & Lima, F. W. C. (2020). More an Administrator and less Manager: an analysis of the regulatory
framework aimed at the public-school management in Pará...
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Introduction
As an activity oriented to certain
goals, school management is guided by
specific legislation as much as by
characteristics from each school in which it
takes place, especially regarding public
schools, the ones analyzed here in greater
detail. This remark becomes necessary
when having in mind the fact that private
schools have their own logic and no
obligation to comply with democratic
principles defined by the Constitution;
also, parents often agree with the school
philosophy when they choose to enroll
their children and to follow internal
regulations.
Related to public school
management, there is regulatory
framework to be followed, an example of
which is the Brazilian Federal
Constitution; its section 206, subsection 6,
on principles that are to guide education,
highlights the need for “democratic
administration of public education, in the
manner prescribed by law”. The subsection
has a tone of imposition related to the
requirement of democratic management
solely in the public field; the understanding
here is that the private sector has its own
logic, which is in turn influenced by
commercial and business interests. On the
other hand, the expression “in the manner
prescribed by law” opens a path for
misinterpretations for such an assignment
within states and cities. Such Is the case of
the Pará state, analyzed here through its
Pact for Education: a local project that had
been based in partnerships between the
state and the private sector, originating
decrees with orientating criteria for one to
occupy the office of state school manager.
It is important to remind that:
In our everyday life, administration
(or management, which will be taken
as synonym) tends to be associated
with leadership or control of other’s
actions. This comes from the fact that
we constantly live with the
arbitration and domination, almost
without realizing it. So it is fair to
understand that managing,
administrating, might be mistaken
with giving orders and bossing
around (Paro, 1998, p. 4).
In this text, we build upon the
concept of school management as it is
defined by authors such as Santos (2012)
and Paro (1998), who understand it to be a
rational mediation focused on education of
autonomous subjects, in which means, and
ends are an indivisible whole. In other
words, the public-school manager needs to
avoid leading the school community work
only based in factors that come from his or
her decisions. It is advisable for him or her
to do it taking into account the factors that
directly encompass the product – the
Vale, C., Silva, G. P., & Lima, F. W. C. (2020). More an Administrator and less Manager: an analysis of the regulatory
framework aimed at the public-school management in Pará...
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
e10666
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2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
5
students themselves – and the educational
process.
We also point out that, within the
school under their responsibility, school
managers are in need of having a technical
profile, compatible with the office
requirements, to which we add sensitivity
to decision-making – this one element
being important because they will be
working with people, especially children
and teenagers in various phases of their
lives, as much as with different longings
capable of interfering with any teaching
and learning processes. Such is the reason
why it is relevant to avoid extremely
administrational, authoritarian, and goal-
achieving oriented attitudes, as they are
part of the business world, mostly
structured for aiming at quantitative results
as their only parameter for a team's
success.
The specific case herein analyzed is
the management of public school in the
Pará state. Since 2013, there have been
substantial changes in the project named
“Pact for Education in Pará”. The Pact
represents “an initiative which seeks to
improve the quality of elementary
education in the Pará state, through actions
orientated to quality of education and
teachers training, curriculum improvement
and school infrastructure” (“Pacto pela
Educação no Pará é lançado com o apoio
do BID”, 2013).
The Pact actions are directed by state
and regional committees under the
presidency of the then governor Simão
Robson de Oliveira Jatene (2011-2018). In
his term, the project was made public and
the regulatory framework was approved,
both processes having direct implications
for public school managers. Based on this
context, we raise the following question:
how does the Pact for Education in Pará
regulatory framework guide school
managers’ actions within public school?
Our path questions the relationship
between management policy defined by the
Pact, quality of results of such policies, and
manager’s actions. The research has been
done through a literature review and a
dialogue with authors who discuss school
management, and document analysis,
which played a main role regarding the
documents – especially decrees – released
under the Pact. Such research procedures
have given us the basis for our analysis
through a critical-descriptive perspective,
aligned with Marx (2008). In his view, the
concrete is a result of synthesis, not its
starting point. “The concrete is concrete
because it is the concentration of many
determinations, hence unity of the diverse”
The guiding question here answers
the notion of an education that is built as a
Vale, C., Silva, G. P., & Lima, F. W. C. (2020). More an Administrator and less Manager: an analysis of the regulatory
framework aimed at the public-school management in Pará...
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social and historical practice, with a special
bond to the way human beings make up
their existence in society. In turn, this
reveals the ways they conceive the world
in which they live. So, there are in play
both the social world and a historic
manifesting of education as a social and
dynamic phenomenon, which then reveal
themselves within the human existence and
its possibility of legitimization and
transformation.
Through this perspective, the
analytical reference to which this text
adheres is not restricted to the adoption of
methods, nor to categorizing data
collection tools. Instead, it has a wide
scope, marked by a structuring axis due to
the problem raised, as it is relevant to
understand the phenomenon reality; on the
other hand, it also encompasses an
intention of amplifying research horizons
the researcher may have (Lüdke & André,
1986).
In order to understand the reality and
make this process of understand one of
amplifying knowledge horizons, the lived
experience in educational contexts and in
relation to other social actors allows to put
in perspective and to signal ways for
defining educational policies and programs
directed by the state. So it is possible to
unveil multiple concretes and their
reflections, all being originated from
actions within the realm of educational
systems, schools, educational practices
developed, subjects and the learning
process to which they are being submitted.
For Bogdan and Biklen (1994),
qualitative research allows for a
researcher’s commitment with his or her
own reality, as much as it favors and
continuing conversation between the
subject who researches and the one who is
researched, a process that happens in a
continuous interaction.
For both authors, the researcher
following the qualitative research guidance
is one to apprehend the object as it is
situated in the history of the organizations
to which he or she is attached. In other
words, there is relevance to the synthesis
of concrete reproduction, both through
thought and in relation to historical
circumstances and the ones pertaining
movements of which the research object
particularities are a part. It is also a
characteristic of such an approach that the
“research interest falls much more into the
process than into the product” (Bogdan &
Biklen, 1994, p. 49); in a path of
apprehension and understanding of an
object multiple determinations it is
possible to identify how elements of day to
day life, representations, meanings, lived
experiences, and subjects’ subjectivity are
all integrated.
Vale, C., Silva, G. P., & Lima, F. W. C. (2020). More an Administrator and less Manager: an analysis of the regulatory
framework aimed at the public-school management in Pará...
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Seeking not only the immediate
appearance of the public-school
management phenomenon in the Pará state,
but also concreteness in itself, this work
focuses on causes and sociopolitical
context (Triviños, 1987). So it highlights
the phenomenon development in its most
inner structure in order to identify decisive
forces responsible for its implementation.
Thus, the paper encompasses the
sociopolitical context that fundaments both
the creation and adoption of the Pact for
Education in Pará, as well as its influence
in developing a role for school managers
and the policy itself. All of this being
considered is based on laws, decrees and
speeches that lead to understanding the
political and ideological dynamics
developed by the government.
We also carry out a literature review
and document analysis for building a
theoretical framework that supports the
problem and analyses being configured
here, in all the study sections and as a
continuous process.
The enterprise of document analysis
made us prioritize certain remarks on the
sociopolitical and educational context of
when the Pact is implemented, in national
and local levels. The idea is to work on a
description and an explanation of reality as
it presents itself as an unveiling of non-
explicit determinants, even though they are
relevant for defining the management
shape inscribed in the studied context.
Public school management as a mediator
in the educational process
As a process to enrich citizen
formation, education is an act present in
various forms of civilization. Its
arrangement varies with time, and
nowadays it can be understood as a way of
appropriating knowledge produced by
humankind for human societies as a social
practice, meaning to always update such
civilizations. This happens because passing
on what has been already learned to new
generations is a way changing a previous
situation (Paro, 1998). Hence, a
civilization without education is faded to
backwardness, that being the reason why
the social value of education is
indisputable and requires continuous
investment for it to grow.
Paro (1998) highlights that
education, especially public-school
education in contemporary society, is a
fertile place for mitigating social
inequalities – although its goal may be the
humanized formation of subjects who are
to be worried with one another, as much as
they are to be protagonists of their own
stories, not being submitted to capitalist
interests and their abuses. We agree with
this position and add that such a human
Vale, C., Silva, G. P., & Lima, F. W. C. (2020). More an Administrator and less Manager: an analysis of the regulatory
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formation might include study,
commitment with collective causes,
understanding and a constant fight for
better life conditions, as well as the
defense of the public good as a space for
all; such an endeavor requires one to not be
subordinated to a private and market-
driven logic neither in content nor in the
management, because those are ways to
weaken the public good through the market
own ideas.
Still according to the author, there
are two question the public school has to
deal with as a priority for it organizational
process to reach the meaning the human
formation: i) school cannot be understood
as a place strictly for prepping for job
market, even if this is one of its roles – the
main goal is to provide stimulus to
students’ critical thinking in order for them
to live well and not only to survive,
making them enjoy various goods socially
created by humankind; ii) school has also
to be enjoyable for students, and education
is to be focused on a logic of continuous
dialogue capable to provide allowing
conditions both for the educator and the
student. These two points need to be
highlighted as cornerstones for the school
manager’s work, since he or she is a
mediator in the educational process.
Affirming the importance of school
in contemporary society, Hora (2010, p.
39) point out that
Various social institutions contribute
to the widening of thought,
knowledge, and collective action.
School stands out among them for
being a privileged space in
developing a systematized education,
which is to be recognized in a
globalized society with and economy
focused on knowledge as a
substantial strategic value for social
growing and as an important factor
for people’s quality of life. The goal
of school education in contemporary
society, made clear by propositions
and practices of school
universalization, is characterized by
the action of working on the subject’s
formation for social life.
As a synonym of engine for social
and economic development within
neoliberal logic, school stands out in
government actions due to the wide public
assisted, which represents an important
part of society with access to updated
information outside of media; they also
may form new opinions on social
dilemmas through policies and projects
proposed by governments and materialized
in public schools.
As products of government
educational policies, students are a target
of constant reforms within schools, some
of which are motivated by each institution
particularities, mostly due to propositions
regarding school education being
organized vertically, only for them to be
Vale, C., Silva, G. P., & Lima, F. W. C. (2020). More an Administrator and less Manager: an analysis of the regulatory
framework aimed at the public-school management in Pará...
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accomplished. In such a process, the
school manager must act as a someone
who drives the educational processes
forward and must have some essential
characteristics to favor a successful
pedagogical development.
Hora (2010) also emphasizes school
managers must adopt practices oriented to
transforming and transforming themselves
in various regards of their personal,
professional and social characteristics. This
has to do with the commitment being
aligned with working class interests, the
one they represent, in order to strengthen
their work on the school as management to
democratize relations, as well as to include
a collective construction of community
acts under their responsibility, among other
aspects.
The same author highlights education
as a political action. Thus, educational
managers need to work within a
perspective of always listening to the
school community participants, as so to
make relations in the school more
democratic; the consequence being
democratization of society, because school
should not be regarded in an isolated
context. This attitude helps to achieve
solutions for everyday problems with
consensual approaches, for a democratic
management is not the same as constant
pacifism; also, it is not very likely to occur
in the reality of a capitalist society. In these
terms, school managers may prioritize
directing actions in the school under their
responsibility, always articulating
education as possibility for social and
intellectual uplift for students and as a
formulation of critical thought and
stimulus to interpreting reality. Such a
process occurs because education
Prepares citizens resilient to
submitting to projects imposed from
outside and above, and who will not
allow themselves to be
instrumentalized by the market. On
the contrary, they make themselves
to be the carriers of a new conception
of democracy, as active political
subjects capable of social
responsibilities, of reinventing the
world, and recreating a state that is
truly public (Hora, 2010, p. 21).
Insofar as mediator in an educational
process, public-school management as
analyzed here needs to allow for tools in
order to the students to have a whole
development. This path needs to happen
when there is an understanding of
submission processes inside and outside
the school, based in rational arguments in
the fight against abuses enacted by the
ruling class, as Karl Marx presents. Many
government projects and programs guided
by the state and materialized in public
schools have no take on reducing social
inequalities, at least in public speech; that
is reason for concern because the modern
Vale, C., Silva, G. P., & Lima, F. W. C. (2020). More an Administrator and less Manager: an analysis of the regulatory
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state in a capitalist society is influenced by
decisions carried out by private groups
which whish for spreading their own
domains and maintaining the status quo.
In order to the management to
conduct a collective work – capable of
allowing the blossoming of subjects’ spirits
more autonomous and active in a fairer and
more equal society – it is relevant for some
technical and pedagogical characteristics to
exist.
To this end, it is necessary for the
manager to have some specific skills
and abilities, realizing that
reconstruction of knowledge happens
within pedagogical action; there is
the need to keep a communicative
interlocution with the team and the
school users. Such are the conditions
that go beyond being a professional
administrator, for school shapes and
builds citizens through values,
principles, feelings, not through
palpable goods, commodities, getting
solely restricted to intangible wealth
(Santos, 2007, p. 13).
For Santos (2007), school
management needs to comply with some
requirements for it to be considered a
bridge to democratizing human relations in
defense of the public good, which is a
possibility of changing the scenario of
social inequality so typical in a capitalist
society. Among the requirements, there
are: teamwork with collective decisions
made by the school community subjects;
creation of collegiate boards with
autonomy; processes of choosing managers
that are to be as much democratic as
possible; also, the construction of a
political-pedagogical project by the school
community, from which other projects
allowing political action might emerge,
especially regarding students and
improvements in that specific community.
Yet “all measures do not mean democracy
to be assured, although it favors
considerably more humane and solidary
relationships, which may contribute for
perfecting mankind” (Santos, 2007, p. 16).
Thus, elementary school
democratization cannot be restricted
to state boundaries – promoting
collective participation only for those
who act within it –, instead it needs
to include mainly users and the
community as a whole, making it
possible for the population to
produce a real possibility of
democratic state control when
providing school education with
quantity and quality compatible with
the obligations of public authorities
and accordingly with societal
interests (Paro, 1998, p. 7).
Hence, the school manager
occupation requires one to go beyond
technical activities of his or her
responsibility, due to bureaucratic matters
being important and needing resolution
when necessary, at the same time they do
not have to overlap with pedagogical
matters in a scale of priorities. The latter
must prime for a critical education for
citizenship, in which students perceive
themselves as subjects coming from public
Vale, C., Silva, G. P., & Lima, F. W. C. (2020). More an Administrator and less Manager: an analysis of the regulatory
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school and defend permanently the space
against the abuses of private and market-
driven groups; those groups aim at
submitting public school to competitive
ideals of the business worlds, exclusionary
and advocator of meritocracy, as if all had
the same conditions, which is not possible
in a capitalist society, especially one like
the Brazilian reality where there is order
for many, but progress for a few.
Public school management oriented by
administrational principles
Neoliberalism consists of a class
project to first emerge in the 70s crisis and
is constituted by a proposal to overcome a
chaotic economic scenario. Its propositions
were more refined than the traditional
liberal ones; defenders of the latter had
other ambitions than limiting a state role in
decisions related to buying and selling, and
market disputes. A current economic
philosophy, “masked by much rhetoric
about freedom, autonomy, personal
responsibility and the virtues of
privatizing, free-market and free-
commerce, has legitimized draconian
policies destined to restoring and
consolidating the power of a capitalist
class” (Harvey, 2011, p. 16).
This new liberalism feature is made
of the clearest of ambitions surrounding
economic centralization in the
bourgeoisie’s hands, for it is a class that
has lost dominance since the
democratization of social relations in a
global scale. That is why we say
neoliberalism presents more refined
aspects, once it highlights business world
characteristics, such as rigor with goals as
an excellency pattern, spreading them to
social fields, such as education. All of this
happens through market-driven processes,
as well as with traditional commercial
activity, which has its own logic, one that
must not be applied to students’ education,
for they deserve to go beyond quantitative
parameters and closed forms used as
commodities.
This array of ideas has been become
more intense since the Washington
Consensus, held in 1989, when economists
from all over the world created strategies
aligned with business-driven propositions.
The goal being thar developing countries,
such as Brazil, could draw up public policy
based on those strategies, most of them
associated with benefitting groups already
social and economically privileged, who
themselves have historically influenced
government decisions. Thus, neoliberalism
and public-private partnerships have
become stronger in Brazil, the latter being
one of the main fronts. Such a change was
first made possible by a document named
Master Plan for the State Apparatus
Vale, C., Silva, G. P., & Lima, F. W. C. (2020). More an Administrator and less Manager: an analysis of the regulatory
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Reform (Plano Diretor de Reforma do
Aparelho do Estado - PDRAE), in 1995, a
manifesto from which emerged a new bond
between state and society when dealing
with the public good. With the arrival of
neoliberal politics in the 90s, as well as
with a redefinition in state role, education
started to follow the same rational and
acquired new features in face of
contradictions between public and private
(Kato, 2013).
This document represents a process
of the state role being weakened and
defends administrational principles
originated in private companies, ones that
should not only be reference for public
management, but also spread to social
domains as a way of improving efficiency
and of presenting satisfying number-driven
results.
The Brazilian public sphere has
adapted to administrational principles,
idolizing educational rankings and indexes
as reference for work, because public
management would have greater
possibilities of measuring control and
results, since “it is not based in processes,
instead it focuses on results, and not in a
rigorous professionalization for publica
management” (“Plano Diretor de Reforma
do Aparelho do Estado”, 1995, p. 16).
Thus, the official rhetoric at the time
emphasized that all public organisms
needed to adopt in their work what
administrational logic dictates, which
should be reference for school
management and action. It started
significant change, due to the document to
criticizing the Federal Constitution from
1988, identified by the Master Plan to be a
setback for dealing with the public good,
which were to be more efficient and
modern, a thing only an administrational
logic could make possible, once taken up
by the state.
The PDRAE made incisive critiques
to Brazilian public management, labeling it
as inefficient and origin of all social
deficits; in thesis, there were enough
resources for successful action, however
there was not a competent management to
deal with them in a coherent manner. Due
to this, social problems were to be
recurring in Brazilian history, according to
those who defended this proposition of a
state reform.
Public-school managers needed to
have a new profile, different from the
democratic proposal assured by the
Constitution. They needed to adopt
features more closely related to
multinational administrator, being
controlling, tough, one to know what to do
for the product (students) to be valued at
the market; such a perspective was aligned
with this administrational logic,
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“understood as a system of describing and
interpreting the world through private
administration categories” (Di Giovanni &
Nogueira, 2015, p. 2).
Thus, for the public-school manager
to be deemed as competent he or she
would have to take up such private
administration categories in their actions;
they would result in teacher’s work
control, student’s profile being
standardized similarly to commodities,
planning focused on goals and not the
pedagogical process, rigor when aiming at
statical results, that would be treated as
something to fulfill in agreeance with a
guide, and so many more that would make
the school similar to a factory.
School starts resembling the market,
as a business which needs to show
satisfying results for compensating
the investments made. To this end,
regarding school, it is the manager
who needs to direct the process
through an administrational gaze
(Dublante, 2009, p. 13).
The administrational strand in
public-school management has become
more prevalent in the official speeches
guided by the PDRAE, as well as
represents a liberal stance adopted by the
Brazilian state; the latter compares
students’ education with products being
made, in defense of a fallacy of narrowly
oriented guidelines and orientations
formulated by strategic experts; such
guidelines suggest as a solution the
elevated educational numbers in large-
scale evaluations. Also, this perspective
advocates that the pedagogical aspect of a
manager’s work is detrimental to reaching
those results. For those who defend the
document, incorporating the private logic
into elementary school would be
indispensable for social advancements,
without considering problems in the local
reality; for example, unsuitable school
conditions, inexistence of school meals,
material and other aspects that directly
impact any evaluation results, yet they are
not the criteria in predefined and
standardized tests.
Moreover, the manifesto blames the
school manager for not reaching the
proposed goals, as if all work depended on
one single person, which is not true. The
manager is in a vital position for assuring
the school success under his or her
responsibility, but there is the need for
instruments and technical, pedagogical,
and structural conditions for the work to be
fully materialized; the consequence being
reflected upon numbers thar represent
indexes, which by themselves are also not
enough to represent school reality.
These numbers are quite important
for the creation of educational public
policies, as they give directions, exactly as
exemplified by the international scenario
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and locally, with the “Pact for Education in
Pará”, which we are going to analyze in the
following section.
School management under the private
sector direction in the Pact for
Education in Pará
The pacts in education are part of the
Brazilian historical context at different
times and situations, being more evident as
a departing point from the 1930s, under
Getúlio Vargas’ government (1930-1945).
They were refined during posterior
governments and terms, having different
interests and propositions, always in the
name of the public good, as Bresser-
Pereira (2016) pointed out.
According to this author, political
and social-related pacts reinforce interests
between different sectors, which come
together to carry out activities oriented to
the public good. Thus, such pacts represent
the reality of different moments in Brazil, a
merging of different groups and their
interests, and a strengthening of private
sectors performance in the public sphere,
which directly interferes with the state role
when the pacts are signed.
One of the most recent pacts at the
federal level was the National Pact for
Literacy at the Right Age (Pacto Nacional
pela Alfabetização na Idade Certa -
PNAIC), launched under Dilma Rousseff’s
term (2011-2016), on November 8, 2012;
the project would make an investment of
R$ 2.7 billion in the two following years,
so that Brazilian children could be become
literate in Portuguese and Mathematics, up
to age 8. At that time, the 27 Brazilian
states had already joined, counting with an
unprecedented participation of all
secretaries of education at the level of
federative units (“Governo investe R$ 2,7
bilhões para alfabetizar crianças até oito
anos”, 2012).
In Pará state, approached here in
great detail, the government launched the
“Pact for Education of Pará”, aiming at
increasing statistical results originated
from the Basic Education Development
Index (IDEB); the Pact itself is based on
the logic of public-private partnerships,
which are signed between the government
and private companies, guiding actions to
be implemented in the state public schools.
The Pact was organized by a state
committee and regional committees
created through the Decree n. 694, of
March 26, 2013, shortly after the project
being launched. This piece of legislation
characterizes the members that would
make part of the Committees, at the same
time emphasizing that the presidency of
the State Committee was to be exerted by
the then governor Simão Jatene, and that
the regional ones were to be presided over
Vale, C., Silva, G. P., & Lima, F. W. C. (2020). More an Administrator and less Manager: an analysis of the regulatory
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by someone linked to the Secretary of
Education in Pará.
The management of such committees
was mostly done by people directly linked
to the government. So the state committee
amounts to a total of 13 people, which are
distributed as follows: 5 seats are directly
linked to the government through its
secretaries; 1 (one) is representative of an
international organization, appointed by
the Inter-American Development Bank
(IDB), which has been a partner in the Pact
since the proposal creation; 2 (two) are
representatives of companies that have
autonomy when appointing their
representatives; 1 (one) is civil society
representative with no autonomy in
choosing, because it is indicated by the
governor. In other words, there are 9
possible votes aligned with both private
companies’ purposes and state public
management; this goes to show some type
of symmetry in the public-private
relationship. In addition to these, the
following entities have vote in the
committee: 1 (one) representative of the
State Legislative Assembly; 1 (one)
president of the Federation of
Municipalities of the State of Pará
(FAMEP); 1 (one) president of the
National Union of Municipal Education
Directors (UNDIME/PA); and 1 (one)
representative of the State University of
Pará (UEPA).
If the Pact had a democratic proposal
when it comes to deliberation and
decisions, the state committee would be
better balanced regarding the social
groups, allowing the participation of
public-school managers, who could help
implementing actions; also, there is a need
for representatives of parents and students
at the proper age. The substantial number
of secretaries may favor decision-making
from the government itself, with little to no
possibility of contradictions, which is
desirable in a democracy.
The regional committees have
representatives from other social segments,
however they obey the same logic of seat
distribution and the relationship between
public and private spheres. This
composition has undergone some changes
through the Decree No 792, of July 1,
2013, which increased the number of seats
to 18, strengthening the number of
municipal associations, such as the
Integrated Consortium of Municipalities of
Pará (COIMP) and Association of
Municipalities of Northeastern Pará
(AMUNEP).
In the same year, another decree was
enacted in relation to the “Pact for
Education of Pará” regulatory framework;
this one directly impacted public-school
Vale, C., Silva, G. P., & Lima, F. W. C. (2020). More an Administrator and less Manager: an analysis of the regulatory
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management. Similarly to the PDRAE
logic at federal level, in 1995, when
management was considered to be the
cause of social problems with education,
the Pará state legislation has made school
management to be the target of
administrational actions, which should be
taken as parameter for those who wished to
occupy any school management office.
Decree No. 695, of March 26, 2013,
“establishes criteria for the exercise of
functions as school principal and vice-
principal within the State Education
Network, which are to be adopted by the
State Secretary of Education, and other
measures that are provided”. The purpose
here is standardizing patterns of
management in Pará state.
Section 2 foresees that managers
will be chosen according to criteria
formulated by the school network of the
State Secretary of Education (SEDUC);
however, it does not mention what those
criteria would be or at least any
parameters to be adopted by the schools
or the Secretary, which makes unclear the
rules necessary for possible candidates to
prepare for the position. In theory, such
criteria should include elements focused
on the pedagogical perspective and the
political education of students; such an
endeavor is proposed by Paro (1998), who
defends school management to be a
mediation tool in citizen education in its
various aspects, a position with which we
agree.
There is also a proposition that
candidates need to have adequate training,
in accord to Resolution No. 001/2010 by
the Pará State Educational Board; in its
subsection VI, it proposes criteria such as
a requirement for one to be a pedagogue
or a holder of a teaching degree with a
graduate degree in the field of education,
with at least two years of experience. At
this point, regarding the years of
experience, there is a deviation from the
Resolution, because the Decree, in its
subsection IV, establishes as a minimum
requirement at least five years of
experience in state schools, which leaves
little room for those who are newcomers
in the public career. Thus, the Pact
regulatory framework adheres to the idea
of “administrationalism” presented by Di
Giovanni and Nogueira (2015), for whom
it uses categories of private management,
such as exclusion, competition and
production in a market-driven logic,
without taking into account pedagogical
aspects or a candidate’s commitment to
the reality of the school he or she aims to
manage.
There are still other criteria that
manager and vice-manager office
candidates in state schools must fulfill,
Vale, C., Silva, G. P., & Lima, F. W. C. (2020). More an Administrator and less Manager: an analysis of the regulatory
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mostly laid out in a system based on an
administrational logic, filled with tests and
technical courses, which must be partly
present in those professionals’ career. We
also highlight contradictions of the
aforementioned decree; while expressing
that schools are to adopt their individual
criteria, it also determines requirements for
those competing for positions.
Regarding democratic principles for
public education as defined by the
Constitution, we identified the absence, for
example, of direct election to be held by
the school community or similar
instruments; those, according to Santos
(2007), would point out to a
democratization of relationships. Also,
according to this author, democratic
management is not something given, to be
proposed in guidelines, as it can only be
materialized in day-to-day school life,
where there are contradictions; therefore, it
is always an ongoing process.
Thus, the Pact regulatory framework
brings forth consequences for Pará state
public education, especially for
management in state schools; one of them
is the directing of actions under the strong
influence of the authorities themselves, and
an intense participation of private sector
representatives; this sector being one
which has its own logic regarding
management processes, which should not
be simply transposed in its entirety to a
space dedicated to educating people, such
as the school.
Final remarks
The “Pact for Education in Pará” is
based on a partnership system between the
state and certain sectors of society – among
which, there are private companies –; its
goal is for them to come together so they
can develop actions for public schools.
These actions should result in the increase
of statistical indictors of IDEB, which are
synonymous with and the main parameter
of quality for the official rhetoric.
The regulatory framework herein
analyzed consists of three decrees that
present how are configured the committees
capable of deciding on educational actions
in Pará state. Thus, we identified an intense
private sector participation, with autonomy
to choose their own representatives; this
process is widely different when it comes
to civil society representatives, whose
number is much lower, in addition to those
being appointed by the committee's
president (the governor); all of this points
to a possible submission of the public to
the private sphere.
It is known how many decrees may
save lives, such as those resulting from
emergency situations, as catastrophes are –
which all require decision-making by
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government authorities so that the chaos
does not become greater –; yet in its
essence this attitude might contains an
authoritarian posture, because it often does
not result from dialogue within deliberative
instances, as usually occurs in law. Both in
our analyzes and in the literature review,
we could not identify emergency-related
content in the three decrees enacted; such
possibility could contain greater social
participation in its own formulation or in
that of a complementary legislation.
In the specific case herein analyzed,
the decrees should have more transparent
and detailed criteria oriented to a fair
selection of those applying for
management positions in state public
schools; such a remark is important due to
there being conditions in the documents, at
the same time when there are few elements
to favor democratic processes in order to
create an office that will contribute to a
wide citizen formation.
Moreover, there is an orientation
towards the school managers having a
profile closely related to the figure of an
administrator from the private sector, one
who demands, monitors and fulfills goals;
therefore, their work excellence begins to
be understood through the criteria for
choosing professionals who are aligned to
an administrational logic, exactly the one
to enter public education in Pará, at least
regarding the analyzed legislation.
The school manager then has a
relevant role in the school under his or her
responsibility. However, he or she is not
the protagonist and does not deserve to be
blamed for all successes or failures the
institution has; this reminds us that they are
professionals committed to the local reality
and need to share the work with a team
also committed, so as not to incur the error
of authoritarian and traditional practices.
We restate here that school managers
must have some technical characteristics
relevant to carrying out work within the
school. Yet they do not need to overlap
with the pedagogical interests. Some of
such characteristics are: constant dialogue
with the school community; closeness to
students, so they are not afraid of the
manager’s figure and are able to see him or
her as someone willing to contribute to
their progress; an open attitude regarding
the school community; as there are many
other that can assure conditions for doing a
harmonious and pleasant work. This
attitude needs to distance itself from any
company managers profile, whose logic is
different from that of schools, even though
defenders of neoliberalism want to
assimilate schools into companies. It is still
possible, after all of this, to find tools of
resistance when it comes to a constant fight
Vale, C., Silva, G. P., & Lima, F. W. C. (2020). More an Administrator and less Manager: an analysis of the regulatory
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for the public good as a space which forms
for life, and not only for high education
entrance exams.
Pará state public school has been
constantly challenged, as it is the case with
the infiltration of administrational
principles that aim to turn it into a factory
for manufacturing goods, in an attempt to
mimic private companies. This is a reason
why it is necessary to have a permanent
defense of democratic management as an
instrument to resist the abuses of capital;
so, to not forget thar school and company
have different logics, and it is the school
duty to denounce when there are intentions
to make it answer a demand for profit
above all things.
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Research financed by the Fundação Amazônia de
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Article Information
Received on October 07th, 2020
Accepted on November 03th, 2020
Published on December, 04th, 2020
Author Contributions: The author were responsible for
the designing, delineating, analyzing and interpreting the
data, production of the manuscript, critical revision of the
content and approval of the final version published.
Conflict of Interest: None reported.
Orcid
Cassio Vale
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8956-4536
Gilmar Pereira da Silva
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9814-9089
Francisco Williams Campos Lima
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4753-6422
How to cite this article
APA
Vale, C., Silva, G. P., & Lima, F. W. C. (2020). More an
Administrator and less Manager: an analysis of the
regulatory framework aimed at the public-school
management in Pará. Rev. Bras. Educ. Camp., 5, e10666.
http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e10666
ABNT
VALE, C.; SILVA, G. P.; LIMA, F. W. C. More an
Administrator and less Manager: an analysis of the
regulatory framework aimed at the public-school
management in Pará. Rev. Bras. Educ. Camp.,
Tocantinópolis, v. 5, e10666, 2020.
http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e10666