DEMOCRACY AND PARTICIPATION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOL

Abstract

Democracy and participation - assumptions of the contemporary public school - characterize the model of school management in which the community uses institutionalized mechanisms of participation to influence on the courses of education and school. This article discusses how the mechanisms of participation in schools can become decision spaces. In this work it was privileged, on one hand, the concept of democratic school - that implies the existence of democracy and participation as its assumptions - and, on the other hand, the pedagogical project of the school as a formal requisite for the democratic opening of the public school. The data of the research came from systematic observation of the school routine and the questioning of seventeen teachers, distributed in eight schools of the Public Education System of Santa Catarina. Analyzing the participation of the teachers in the Instances of Democratic School Management (IGEDs), we intended to draw an overview of the democratic management in the public school, according to democracy and participation categories. The presence of vestiges of authoritarian structure of management, associated with the little contribution of the IGEDs for the democratic school management and the respective weakness of its representative power is highlighted. The article conclusion shows the necessity of a careful look at the important role of the teacher in the valorization of the IGEDs in the schools and highlights the importance of the persistence of school communities in the search for the right to decide on the courses of education.

Key words: Democratic school. Democratic management. Collegiate. Mechanisms of participation.