Estilos de liderança e escola democrática
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Data
2009
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Edições Universitárias Lusófonas
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O sistema educativo português tem assistido, nas últimas duas décadas, ao aparecimento de medidas de política educativa cuja agenda reformista tem dado importância crescente às dimensões da gestão e da liderança escolares. Ao longo deste percurso marcado por ensaios e reajustamentos morfológicos nos órgãos de gestão, denota-se uma valorização crescente do papel das lideranças no desenvolvimento da autonomia das escolas. Percepcionada politicamente como uma solução óptima para a resolução dos problemas da indisciplina, do abandono e do insucesso, a liderança emerge paulatinamente como uma variável de controlo da excelência escolar, ao arrepio de uma cultura de gestão colegial historicamente enraizada nas escolas portuguesas. Apesar de serem claras as influências de inspiração neoliberal na forma como se reduz a realidade educativa a indicadores de natureza gerencialista, é interessante, mesmo assim, problematizar a natureza da relação entre os estilos de liderança e gestão e os resultados escolares e o seu impacto no desenvolvimento democrático da escola. Partindo da análise crítica aos Relatórios de Avaliação Externa das Escolas, elegemos como objectivo central deste texto a discussão dos significados conferidos a uma “boa liderança”, a uma “boa organização e administração escolar” e à sua eventual relação com os resultados escolares, de modo a compreendermos quais as tensões que este processo avaliativo comporta no plano das configurações e das práticas organizacionais das diferentes escolas-objecto. Interrogamo-nos se este processo não constituirá uma espécie de “missionarismo gestionário”, que subverte as lógicas de decisão autónoma e democrática das escolas.
The Portuguese education system has witnessed, in the last two decades, the emergence of educational policy measures whose reformist agenda has attached growing importance to school management and leadership dimensions. Along this path, marked by trials and morphological adaptations of management bodies, one notes greater acknowledgement of the role leadership plays in the development of school autonomy. Perceived as a politically sound response to the plagues of rising school indiscipline, underachievement and dropout, the leadership theme has been gradually emerging as a fundamental variable in the quest for school excellence, strongly opposed to the historically rooted collegial management culture so widespread in Portuguese schools. Despite the clear the influence of neoliberal thinking in this attempt to reduce school life to the mere expression of indicators of manageralist nature, it is interesting, nevertheless, to study/examine the nature of the relationship between leadership and management styles and school outcomes and the impact this relationship has on the democratic development of the school. In this sense, based on the critical analysis of the external evaluation reports of secondary schools, the central aim of this paper is to discuss the meanings generally attributed to “good leadership”, “good school organization and administration” to observe if it is possible to establish some form of link with school outcomes, to understand how the tensions unleashed by this evaluation process influence the organizational settings and practices of different school-objects. One question if this process may not, in fact, represent a “managerialist mission” whose “secret” agenda is to subvert and rewire the logic of autonomous and democratic decision making of schools?
The Portuguese education system has witnessed, in the last two decades, the emergence of educational policy measures whose reformist agenda has attached growing importance to school management and leadership dimensions. Along this path, marked by trials and morphological adaptations of management bodies, one notes greater acknowledgement of the role leadership plays in the development of school autonomy. Perceived as a politically sound response to the plagues of rising school indiscipline, underachievement and dropout, the leadership theme has been gradually emerging as a fundamental variable in the quest for school excellence, strongly opposed to the historically rooted collegial management culture so widespread in Portuguese schools. Despite the clear the influence of neoliberal thinking in this attempt to reduce school life to the mere expression of indicators of manageralist nature, it is interesting, nevertheless, to study/examine the nature of the relationship between leadership and management styles and school outcomes and the impact this relationship has on the democratic development of the school. In this sense, based on the critical analysis of the external evaluation reports of secondary schools, the central aim of this paper is to discuss the meanings generally attributed to “good leadership”, “good school organization and administration” to observe if it is possible to establish some form of link with school outcomes, to understand how the tensions unleashed by this evaluation process influence the organizational settings and practices of different school-objects. One question if this process may not, in fact, represent a “managerialist mission” whose “secret” agenda is to subvert and rewire the logic of autonomous and democratic decision making of schools?
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Revista Lusófona de Educação
Palavras-chave
EDUCAÇÃO, SISTEMAS EDUCATIVOS, EDUCATION, EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS, GESTÃO ESCOLAR, EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT, AVALIAÇÃO DE ESCOLAS, SCHOOLS EVALUATION, ESCOLAS, SCHOOLS, DEMOCRACIA, DEMOCRACY