Gestão escolar democrática, participação e autonomia: realidade ou utopia?

Abstract

This paper analyzed the relation between participation and school autonomy, observing Director actions and School Council actions and if school has pedagogic, administrative and financial autonomy. This is a descriptive search, with quantitative approach, realized in 47 state schools in Rio Grande do Norte, and composed by 292 participants, divided in 3 groups (Direction, Coordination and School Council). The instrument to catch data was a questionnaire and the data treatment realized by way descriptive statistic and inferences using X 2 test. The results show that school administration is composed in great part by women with specialization grade. All schools have School Council and Financial Council, but have not Parents and Masters Association and just one of them has Student Guild. The direction choose process is, in 83% of the schools, by elective way. The indicators show that the relation involving family, society and school stays weak, but Directors, Coordinators and School Council members develop their functions with coherence. About autonomy, it is limited and presents correlation with participation, but the educational system stays rigid and centralizer