School Council, Participation and Quality of education within the framework of Democratic management

Abstract

This essay aims to present some reflections on the implementation of School Councils in Brazil, highlighting the main difficulties still found in the consolidation of these Councils within the school itself. The reference authors of this essay were those who examine the question of democratic management of school and school Council, as well as the legislation on this issue. The essay initially discusses the principle of democratic management of Public Schools in legislation, highlighting its limits and contradictions. In a second moment, the progress and setbacks in the Political Educational Process are presented, addressing, particularly, the contradictions in the implementation of the School Councils and in community participation in school. In the conclusion, there is a discussion about the practical difficulties of participation faced by the counselors in everyday school life and the questioning of the real possibility of School Council collaborating for the extension of social quality of Brazilian public school. It is considered that the School Councils may actually prove to be an important tool for school management, based in the context of democratization of power relations within the school, with the concrete participation of all the school community.

Key words:  Democratic management; Participation; School Council, Quality of education.